All About The Music
by Mr Imagination
Summary: Once you've been 'the biggest pop band in the world', what do you do next? When given the chance opportunity, the members of Lemonade Mouth, decide to pass it on.
1. Intro

**THE**(same) **DISCLAIMER!**

This is a story written using DISNEY's modification, of MR. HUGHES' original characters. Nothing other than the plot is mine. I just 'borrowed' the characters for the purpose of entertaining some folks. :-)

Also, you will again come across a'real' song, which is used only in support of telling the story (I thought it was kinda cool). I named the artists who own/perform the song originally. Hopefully, I'm not stepping on anyones toes!

* * *

*NOTE*

It has been suggested I need to point out that the stories I've posted/am posting are sequential. While each one may be a pretty good story by itself, they'll make much more sense if you read them in order.

1. Begin Again  
2. Journeys End  
3. In the End  
4. All About The Music  
5. Where We Want To Be

* * *

**NOTE**

This one actually contains some... well... 'language'. The characters are older, and sometimes, people just say things... you know? :-)

Because I've managed to avoid that in the past, I sorta feel obligated to warn ya'll... (that's one of those southern things) *laughs*

* * *

**Lemonade Mouth**

_**All About The Music**_

"Being allowed to play here, tops everything  
Lemonade Mouth has ever done –  
and maybe, everything we ever will do."

_~ Olivia Gifford_

* * *

_Once you've been 'the biggest pop band in the world',  
__what do you do next?_

_When given the chance opportunity, the members of  
Lemonade Mouth, decide to pass it on._

_After being recognized by the music world, for their  
hard work and diligence, they go on tour once again…  
and this time, they're taking their successors._

_It's a wild ride, city after city, but by the time it's  
over, they've made certain that the next generation  
pop phenomenon has a clear understanding of one  
crucial thing…_

_The thing that made Lemonade Mouth into monster it is…_

_Their passionate belief that…_

_It is…_

_And always has to be…_

_**All about the music… **_

* * *

_Comments?_ :-)


	2. Prologue

_**PROLOGUE**_

In the total darkness of the arena, a single female voice is heard…

"Ladies and gentlemen," the voice says, "my name is Misty Maitland…" a single spotlight illuminates the source of the voice – a petite female, with bright red hair, and a face full of freckles, standing center stage, "and most of you know me as the lead singer of _Ransom_. Tonight, however, along with the rest of you, I'm just a _fan_…"

A huge digital monitor behind her suddenly comes to life, displaying the image of an album cover, across the bottom of which are the words _Begin Again_.

"Just more than four years ago, I was a high school sophomore whose biggest concern was which college I would attend. Then, as strange as it was, my destiny was set, by the arrival of one amazing, if not slightly odd, lady…"

The image changes to one of Stella Yamada, guitar over her shoulder, and a fist in the air. Misty turns and glances up at it, and after a second's hesitation, she turns back toward the audience and continues.

"I was sitting under a tree, studying for a math test, generally minding my own business, when she walked past me, headed for the school's parking lot. I was singing away – which according to her, is what made her stop – to what was at the time, my favorite song. Without a word, she walked over, sat down across from me, pulled one of the buds from my ear, and stuck it in her own. For some reason, I just kept singing, right through to the end of the song. Ms Yamada never said a word – nor did Mrs. Perkins, our music teacher, who stood silently the entire time, watching. When the song was over, still never having said anything, she handed me the ear bud, smiled, then stood up and walked off with Mrs. Perkins. Two hours later, I found myself, along with five other kids, in the school's music room, on our way to becoming a pop band…"

The image on the monitor begins changing at intervals, to the six members of _Ransom_ inside Discovery Studios, working on their record. When the image stops on one of Misty and Olivia, Misty turns back to the audience.

"Then… I met Olivia White. She alone is responsible for where my career as a vocalist is today… _She,_ had faith in me… and convinced me to have faith in myself…"

As Misty again turns toward the monitor, the image changes to a video of her in the studio, singing _Destined To Be_.

"She took a fifteen year old kid, and taught her how to use _and control,_ what everyone tells me is a 'gift'…"

The image again changes, this time to _Ransom_ performing _Hostage _live in concert.

"All through the wild ride our lives became, our mentors – the five members of _Lemonade Mouth_ – were there, keeping six high school kids on track, and headed for stardom."

The lights come up on the stage, as the remaining members of _Ransom_ join Misty center stage.

"It's taken them fifteen years…" one of the kids says.

"An absurd amount of struggle and diligence…" adds another.

"And a four year hiatus," adds a third.

"But, tonight the members of _Lemonade Mouth_ have, in _our band's_ opinion…" Misty says, and is quickly interrupted by broken and sporadic applause, whistling, and yells of agreement. "…have finally gotten their due…"

The image on the monitor behind them changes to an exploded view of the _Begin Again_ album cover, with two Grammy Awards superimposed over it.

"Tonight, the members of the Academy, have allowed the six of us, the honor and privilege, of presenting to all of you, for their _first_ live performance of this year's Song of the Year, _Begin Again_, from this year's Best Pop Vocal Album of the same name…"

The lights go out, and as the curtain behind the kids begins to rise, six voices are heard as they simultaneously scream…

"_LEMONADE MOUTH!" _

…which is quickly followed by a thunderous round of applause.

The lights come up to reveal Olivia, microphone in hand, sitting on the floor, center stage, flanked by Mo and Stella on stools – guitars in hand. Sitting on the floor on either side of Olivia, are the two cutest little girls you've ever seen, each holding a Grammy. Once the arena falls silent, Wendell starts the background track, Charlie joins him on the drums, and Mo follows with the base line. The moment Stella strikes her her first note, Olivia begins singing.

They play _Begin Again, _acoustically, in its entirety, and when they reach the last chorus, Olivia holds out her mic, letting Bailey and Melissa, who are now standing on each side of her, sing the last few lines with her.

The very second the last note fades, every single one of the 30,000 people in the Staples Center, is on their feet applauding…


	3. Chapter 1

_**ONE**_

"I'm not sure the label can support that idea, Olivia," Richard says, looking at me as if I've lost my mind.

"Yeah… my boss isn't crazy about it either," Stephen – our road producer – adds. "Too many things that _could_ go wrong…"

"Olivia," Richard says hesitantly, "it's far better not to start, than to end up cancelling…"

"Guys… _seriously_. I'm _pregnant_ – not terminally ill for crying out loud." I pause and look right at Richard. "And _that_ wasn't even fair, and you know it…"

Richard blushes a bit, and quickly picks up some papers off his desk. I know inside, that it was the 'manager' in him that generated the comment about the first tour.

"And, just for the record, _both my doctors_ say that, if done in moderation, a tour isn't out of the question."

Richard, Stephen, and Terri Maxwell – our engineer – turn and look at Wendell.

"Yeah, right. Like any of you think for a second, she'll listen to me?"

Mo and Stella are both trying their best not to laugh.

"How many shows?" Richard finally asks, shaking his head.

Charlie stands up, and hands him a printed spreadsheet of our plan.

"We figure each Friday, from the beginning of May through first week of August. If any of the venues want second shows, we'll see if we can pull off Saturdays as well. Our fan base isn't what it once was…"

Everyone hears Terri mumble, "_yeah, you wish_", right in the middle of Stella's explanation. When we all turn to look at her, she blushes bright red.

"Anyhow," Stella continues, "we're figuring single dates at each location, and a total of twelve locations. We intend to limit each show to twelve songs – which works out to about an hour or so, and leaves us some time to mess with the crowd. Olivia," she turns and looks at me, "says she can handle that.

"_And you_," Richard says, raising his voice a bit, and pointing directly at me, "_will not_ be doing that silly 'slide' thing – _understood_?"

Everyone cracks up, and Charlie says, "We have the kids for that, Rick…"

"_You what?"_

"We're taking the girls, Richard – and Georgia is going to watch them. Is that a problem?" I ask.

He shakes his head, again looking dumbfounded, and mutters, "If it keeps _you_ from jumping around on stage…"

Again, everyone laughs.

"Have you picked the venues yet?" Stephen asks, scribbling notes on a pad in his lap.

"We're going to let the fans decide…" Mo says, grinning.

"_You're what?"_ Stephen and Richard say, simultaneously, making everyone laugh.

"We're going to put the word out that we plan to go on tour again, and then let the fans decide where we'll play, based on input on our website," Mo says.

"_Oh how totally cool!_" Terri blurts out, also writing in a notebook. "The twelve places with the most online votes are where you do the shows."

"Exactly," Stella adds.

Again, Richard shakes his head, in total disbelief.

"You guys are still a bunch of nut cases… I swear." He turns and looks at Terri and Stephen, and asks, "Well?"

"It's easily doable from an engineering standpoint," Terri says. "Steve?"

"If we stick to the smaller venues, I don't see a problem with production."

"So…" I say, glancing at each person in the room, then locking eyes with Richard, "is our label going to support _Lemonade Mouth's fourth tour?"_

As Richard looks around the room at each of us, he gets a strange little twinkle in his eyes. He looks down at the spreadsheet he's still holding, then back at us.

"You know… Moxie was right…"

"About?" Stella asks.

"With the five of you, from the day this started, it's _always_ been about the music… _and your fans…"_

He lays the sheet of paper on his desk, takes a deep breath, and stands up.

"I only have one more question…"

"And that is?" I ask, not even trying to hide the big, silly grin on my face.

"Can I come?"


	4. Chapter 2

_**TWO**_

I never did give Wendell a chance to propose – instead, I took Georgia's idea and made it happen. First, I asked Sydney for a copy of Wen's birth certificate, then sent it, and the other required documents, to Leonard. He had everything processed for me, and even reserved a time for the Justice of the Peace at the courthouse, to perform a civil ceremony.

Using the excuse Stella needed us for something, I told Wen we needed to go to Tahoe. He of course, never questioned it. Well… not until we pulled up in front of the courthouse on the Nevada side of town…

Once he figured out what I – with the help of our friends – was up to, he jumped right in. His dad and Sydney met us at the courthouse, and Mr. Gifford gave Wen a set of rings he personally picked out – simple, slim, platinum bands, with our names inside them – and they're perfect.

Mo and Stella spent the hour before we arrived, wandering around Reno, talking to people. If someone recognized them, they would ask them if they wanted to attend a wedding. Of course the moment they found out _who_ was getting married… well, you get the idea.

We were walking down the hall, headed for the room where the ceremony was going to be, when I found our photographer. He looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, and was making adjustments to a large Nikon digital camera that was in his lap. I asked him if he was any good with his camera, and he immediately started showing me photos – turns out he just finished photographing his older brother's wedding, and was waiting for them to finish the paperwork. I asked if he wanted to make a couple hundred bucks, and he looked totally confused.

"Ma'am, I'll do it for free… it's really not all that hard," he offered, a sheepish little grin on his face.

I laughed, told him to follow me, and sent Mo to tell his brother where he'd gone.

The ceremony – now that was amazing. Wendell opened the door to the room it was to be held in, and we found about a hundred people waiting for us. I almost burst into tears. It was the most diverse group of people I think I've ever seen – families, teenagers, older folks, and a bunch of little kids. Turns out our _fans_ span generations…

The part that actually made me cry – Mr. Gifford brought his mother, and in lieu of Grams, she gave me away. All in all, it was the best wedding I could have ever hoped for.

Oh… and our photographer? He definitely knows his way around a camera. The images were amazing! Wendell ended up giving him an envelope with five one hundred dollar bills in it, which he immediately stuck in his pocket. What I'd give to have seen his face later, when he opened it. After it was over, I pulled him aside, and we had a discussion about the photos.

"I'm hoping that should you decide to sell them, it will be to someone respectable…"

"_What?"_ he blurted out, looking totally shocked.

"People are going to offer you a lot of money for them," I said in response. "You're the only person with photos of our wedding…"

"Are you famous or something?" he asked, as he changed the memory card in the camera, and to my complete surprise, handed me the one with our photos on it.

"She's Olivia White," his new sister-in-law – still in her cute little wedding dress – said, as she walked up behind us. "And the guy she just married is Wendell Gifford."

"They're in _Lemonade Mouth_," her new husband said, stopping next to her. "You, little brother, just photographed the wedding of two of pop music's biggest superstars."

When the kid looked back at me, I swear, I thought he was going to faint – even if he had no idea who we were…

"Well… be assured _you_ will get full credit for the photos when our record company releases them to the press. You ready to be famous?"

I got his name and address, and the names of his parents, and promised to send him – and his sister-in-law – signed copies of all our CDs.

Two weeks later, Wendell and I were on the covers of damn near every tabloid in the country, and even made the third page in Rolling Stone.

And… every single image that was printed had the words _'Photograph by Roland Cruz'_ prominently displayed across it.


	5. Chapter 3

_**THREE**_

"You're certain you want to do this?" Wen asks, his face awash with concern.

"Wendell, I wouldn't have suggested it, if I wasn't. Why are you so worried about it?"

It's Saturday morning, and we're sitting under the tree in the backyard – _our place_. Since we got married, it's where he and I have all of our important conversations.

"Well… you're pregnant – and I think that trumps making music."

"_Nothing_, Wendell Gifford, trumps making music – and you know it. Besides, I'm not quite three months, and will still have two to go, by the time we get back."

When he still looks concerned, I lean over and gently kiss him.

"Doctor James says it'll be okay, Wen. I promise to be careful, and I _did_ concede to not doing the 'slide'…"

Wen laughs, and squeezes my hand.

"So… what's the status of the venues so far?"

"Mo says the list is growing, but so far, the top twelve are five places in the US, three in Canada, one each Japan, Australia, the UK, and Germany."

"I think we need to limit the US to maybe three of the shows – to make sure the other places have a chance."

"I agree! I'll tell Mo to put that on the site, and maybe even make it so there's one venue on each coast, and one in the center. We may have to do multiple shows you know…"

"Yeah… I'm thinking the same thing. Who knew that after all this time, people would still want to hear us?"

"Wendell, it's just like Moxie said, and Richard repeated – for us it's always been about _the fans_, and they know this."

"Well, I'm just here for the ride. You figure it all out, and tell me when to show up. I'm going to run down to my classroom for a bit and…"

About that time, Mo comes out of the house with a big grin on her face, and Wen loses his train of thought.

"Hey guys," she says, taking a seat next to me, "the director of MSG called Richard and said – and this is a quote apparently – '_they have got to play the Garden on this tour!_' How funny is that?"

Within seconds, we're well into yet another discussion about the tour, and going to the high school ends up on the back burner. An hour later, as we are headed out to lunch, my phone vibrates and chimes, telling me I have a text message. I push some buttons, and read the message.

_Miss White~  
__Josh and I were hoping we could have a  
__minute of your time, to talk to you about  
__something kind of important. Let me know.  
__Misty_

I quickly type a response.

_Of course! Give me a call!_

The response is immediate.

_We were hoping we could do __it face to face…_

Because I stop walking, Mo and Wen do the same, and are now standing watching me.

_When? I can try to meet you._

Again the response is instant – as if she already typed it.

_Uh… how about now? We're __on your front porch…_

I start laughing, and close the phone.

"Oliva?" Mo says, "Is something wrong?"

"I dunno – let's go find out," I reply, going into the house.

They follow me through the kitchen, down the hall, and right to the front door. When I open it, there stand Misty and Joshua – _Ransom's_ singer and lead guitarist.

"What the…" Wen blurts out.

"Come on in guys," I say, holding the door open for them. "What could be so important you'd come all the way to Albuquerque?"

They smile, file past me, and follow Mo into the living room. Wen and I bring up the rear.

"Oh, and… how in the heck do you know where I live anyhow?" I add, laughing.

Misty turns, faces me, and forcing a smile, says, "Terri told me."

"Well, sit down and tell me what's on your mind guys."

We're quietly waiting for Misty to explain, when I realize she seems seriously nervous for some reason. Joshua reaches out, takes her hand, and gently squeezes it.

"Remember what Terri told us…"

"What's going on Misty?" I immediately ask. "Since when do I make you nervous?"

When she does nothing more than stare at me, I glance at Mo who shrugs, then at Wen who does the same. I get up, cross to the chair she's in, and kneel down in front of her.

"Along time ago, we decided that you would always see me as your _friend_ – never as some big star, remember? I'd be seriously bummed if getting those," I point across the room at the two Grammys, "has changed that…"

I pause and glance at Joshua, who smiles, then winks at me.

"Whatever this is about, all you have to do is tell me – _tell us_ – and we'll be here for you."

"We want to ask a favor of you – of _Lemonade Mouth_," Joshua says, looking at Mo and Wen.

"Sure," Wen answers, without hesitation. "Whacha need, Josh?"

"You guys have always toured independently…" Misty finally says, looking right at me, "but we're wondering if this time, you might consider…"

When she pauses, she looks up at Joshua, with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Oh hell," Joshua blurts out, finally laughing, "we want to know if we can open for you on your tour this summer…"

"_What?"_ Wen almost yells.

"_O… M… G…"_ Mo quickly adds.

"Joshua, aren't you guys supposed to be doing your own tour to support your new album?"

"_Guys,_" Wen quickly adds, "you have three songs in the top twenty-five at the moment, and one of those is number three! Why would you want to _open_ for us?"

"Yes," Misty says, wiping her eyes, "Richard almost has the tour set up. But we feel we can still support _our_ record, while opening for you guys. We'll just play fewer songs…"

"And this isn't about where we are on the charts…" Joshua adds.

"I have to believe your tour will be about more than _just_ twelve shows," Mo offers.

"Yes ma'am," Joshua says in response to Mo, "twenty-six actually. We'll just rearrange some stuff…"

After a moment of hushed silence, I look Misty right in her tear-filled eyes.

"Why?"

She finally smiles, and relaxes.

"You – _all of you_," she glances at Mo and Wen, "know why. Four weeks ago, at the Staples Center, _the six of us_ finally understood why…"

I smile at her, as my heart races. I reach into my pocket, pull out my phone, and as the four of them watch, I dial. She answers on the second ring.

"Discovery Studios."

"Hang on a second, Stella…"

I quickly dial Charlie's cell phone.

"Delgado."

I punch the buttons to make it a conference call, put it on speaker, and when I turn to glance at my visitors, I find the two most stunned looking faces I've seen in a while.

"Okay – _official band meeting!_ Wen and Mo are standing here with me guys. I have a question, and it's something we all have to agree on."

"What's up?" Stella asks.

"How do we feel about adding an opening act to the tour?"

Behind me, Wen and Mo are doing their very best not to break out in laughter, as we wait for responses from the phone.

"Anyone in particular?" Charlie asks, or "just having someone open."

"Could be fun," Stella adds. "We've never done it before."

Mo steps over next to me, tugs on my ponytail, glances at the paralyzed figures of _Ransom's_ lead guitarist and lead singer, and then leans over next to the phone.

"_Ransom!" _Mo says loudly. "They actually want to _open_ for us…"

"_No feakin' way!"_ Stella blurts out even before Mo finishes her sentence.

Just as quickly we hear _"I vote HELL YES!" _from Charlie.

In seconds, everyone is laughing, and when I glance at Misty, I see the tears, cascading down her freckle-covered cheeks.

For some reason, I know at this exact moment, this will be the peak of _Lemonade Mouth's_ tenure in the pop music world. After this, we'll just hang around, and try to get old gracefully.

I also know it's the perfect way for us to go out…


	6. Chapter 4

_**FOUR**_

"Hey husband!" my wife says, handing me the latest addition to our family.

"_I held Riley!"_ Bailey yells, as she races across the room and jumps onto the couch.

I take a seat next to her, kiss her on the forehead, and then stare into my youngest daughter's eyes. It only takes a moment for her to smile.

When Victoria leans over, I lift my head and kiss her.

"Bad news?" she asks, making reference to the call I just finished.

"No…"

"Well then, what's the matter?" she asks, giving me 'the look'.

"Same thing… I guess…" I reply, taking the warm bottle Victoria holds out, and slipping it into Riley's mouth.

"I honestly don't understand you at times, Charlie Delgado… I swear…"

"Vic…" is as far as I get.

"This isn't about how you grew up, or how I grew up. It's about how _we_ chose to raise _our_ kids and what we believe family to be. You need to quit being a dweeb and get over it. I don't care what anyone thinks about our 'home environment' or what you 'do for a living'. These are _our kids_, and with your help, I intend to raise them the way _we _want to – and everyone else can kiss my butt…"

She turns and storms into the kitchen without looking back. I turn to look a Bailey.

"Mommy's mad…" she says, wrinkling her face up into a frown.

"Yeah… Daddy did it again dear," I reply, gently pulling the bottle out of Riley's mouth in an effort to get the girl to breathe.

When I look back at Bailey, she's grinning. Truth is, with each passing day, she becomes more and more, the spitting image of her mother. Every time I look at her, my heart melts.

It isn't a new argument – quite the contrary. It's been going on for about a year. I have no idea why, but something inside is trying to push me to be… well… 'normal'. And it's driving my wife totally nuts. I have this strange ongoing fear that what I 'do' will somehow be detrimental to my kids as they get older. Unfortunately, the music business, while generally about talent, is driven by the almighty dollar. And, all one has to do to see the negative results of exposure to it, is pick up a newspaper. What was once amazing and magical to me, has become… well… just a job.

"Hey," I whisper to Bailey, as I put the bottle back in Riley's mouth, "run to the kitchen, and tell your mom that you're going on tour with Daddy…"

She's up and moving so fast, she almost creates a vacuum in the room. Second later, I hear her squeaky little voice.

"UH-HUH! I AM SO! DADDY EVEN SAID!"

Seconds later, Bailey reappears, looking totally dejected.

"Mommy says no I'm not…"

"You march right back in there, and tell her that you most certainly are…" I watch her beautiful blue eyes totally light up, and a big grin spread across her face, "and tell her that Georgia is going to be babysitting."

She spins around, but before she can take a step, Victoria appears in the doorway. I immediately notice the tears in her eyes.

"Seriously, Charlie?"

"Yeah…" I reply, smiling and again making Riley stop to breathe. "Stella is bringing Melissa too. We figure we'll let them cut up onstage when we play _Determinate_ – considering Olivia is on 'dance restriction'."

"Come here, Bailey," Victoria says, sitting her down on the love seat, then taking Riley from me, and putting the baby in her lap. "Hold this," she puts the bottle in the baby's mouth and waits for Bailey to take it.

"_Okay!"_ Bailey blurts out, now excited at the chance to feed her sister.

Victoria steps over my legs, straddling me, and then sits gently down on my lap. After looking at me for a second, she leans over and kisses me.

"_Both_ the girls are comfortable in 'your' world Charlie – everyone in the Staples Center saw it. Even my mother saw it – on TV no less. Stella has known it for a while. Bailey deserves the right to be 'proud' of what her father does, so give her the chance. Let her see what her daddy, and his friends, can do to make five or ten thousand people smile, dance, and even cry. Take her, and let her see _Charlie_… being _Charlie_…"

As she leans forward to kiss me again, I have the same recurring thought…

_Yes, I did in fact manage to marry, the most perfect woman in the world…_ and mother too, for that matter.

"Well babe, she's going to get to see a lot more than Daddy making music…"

"Meaning?"

"Care to guess who our opening act is going to be?" I ask, as she stands up, and gets the baby back from Bailey.

"Opening for you? You guys have never had an opening act…"

"We do this time…"

"Okay… so tell…" she says, gently wiping Riley's face, kissing her, and then laying her in her playpen.

"I'll give you a hint… their recent _number one_, dropped to number three last week…"

Victoria straightens up instantly, and spins around to face me.

_"No freakin' way, Charlie!"_

_"MOMMY!" _Bailey blurts out, putting her hands on her little hips, and glaring.

Victoria laughs, turns to Bailey, and says, "Sorry baby… it slipped." When she turns back to look at me, all I can do is laugh.

"Misty and Josh just showed up at Olivia's house – that's who called me. They asked if they can open for us on tour – how weird is that?"

_"My God, Charlie!_ This is going to be the tour they talk about until you're old! You've _got_ to take Bailey."

"And what about my wife?"

"Seriously? You want me to come?"

"I'm thinking that between my mom and your mom – who live less than five miles apart – Riley will be in very good hands…"

"Well… I can't blow off work for the entire tour… but I bet Kenneth will let me go for a few weeks. Oh my gosh… this is going to be amazing…"

As my wife rushes to the phone, I lean over and pick up Bailey. I cross the living room, step out onto the deck, and as the sun sets, we watch the twinkling lights of LA below us.

"So, Bailey, do _you_ think it's okay for your daddy to be a rock star?"

"No," she quickly replies, "My daddy is the _best_ rock star!"

As I stand here holding my daughter, still very conflicted, I find myself amused by the fact that my goofy wife, is far more excited about all of it than I am.

I honestly wish I could find a way to get past seeing it as 'just my job' – and get back to the _passion_ I felt, our first night in MSG… so long ago.

_Maybe_… those six kids can help me.


	7. Chapter 5

_**FIVE**_

I watch as the bus rolls to a stop, the door opens, and Melissa comes bouncing down the stairs.

"Thanks, Mary!" I yell to the driver, who smiles, and waves.

My daughter runs to me, turns around, and waits as I get her backpack off. Then I squat down and get my daily required hug.

"Guess what mommy? Mrs. Peavy says I'm the best colorer in our whole class cuz I stay in the lines!"

"Oh yeah? Did you bring me something totally cool for the fridge?"

"Uh-huh… and I made something for Daddy too – but it's a secret so you can't tell him…"

"Oh… did Missy make him a birthday card?"

"Awww… how did you know?"

"Because I love him so much I know when his birthday is, silly."

I kiss her cheek, stand up, and hand in hand, we walk down the driveway to the studio. Knowing exactly where her father is, she takes the card, and tears off toward Leonard's office. By the time I get there, she's already sitting in his lap.

"My goodness! This one is even better than the one from last year! You are the best artist I know, Missy! Thank you _sooo_ much," my husband says, gently kissing his daughter on the forehead.

"Your snack in on the table in the lounge dear," I tell her, as she slides off her dad's lap. "I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Okay," she replies, and disappears out the door.

"Lenny, you need to let go, babe. You're letting all this stress you too much."

"It's a _business,_ Stella… you can't just blow your clients off because you need to go on tour…"

For just a split second, I'm stunned. When he finally makes eye contact with me, I understand.

"I've told you a hundred times, Leonard, say the word and all this is finished…"

He hangs his head, and begins rubbing his temples, as I cross the room, and stop behind him.

"I'm sorry, Stel… honestly…"

"No need to be. You just voiced your honest opinion babe," I reply, as I kiss the back of his neck, and begin gently rubbing his shoulders.

"I can push the paper… but the rest of it scares me. Sure, in six years I've learned a good bit about all this…" he waves a hand to indicate the studio, "but I'm _not_ an engineer – not like you, or Charlie." He pauses and glances up at me. "When you aren't here, I feel kind of useless to the clients, and worry that our reputation is going to suffer…"

I stop rubbing his shoulders, spin his chair around, straddle him, and then sit down on his knees.

"That's crap Leonard, and you know it. What's really bothering you…"

After he thinks about it for a few seconds, he opens up.

"You're right – it is a bunch of crap, and it's my problem. Not yours."

"And…"

"Your life, Stella – it just seems to keep coming back. Each time it seems _Lemonade Mouth_ is done, *poof* – it bursts right back into existence…"

"Leonard, all I have to do is tell them I'm done – and each of them will accept that. We've had this discus…"

He interrupts me midsentence.

"Oh yeah, right. First of all, how is that even remotely fair to you? And second, I can imagine what happens when the world finds out _I_ broke up 'the biggest pop band in the world'…"

"Jezzz…" I say, following it with a laugh. "Lenny, it isn't about _me_, or the _band_ – it's about _us_. It has been since that moment in the coffee shop…"

"Yeah… about that…" he says, as Melissa comes back into the office and sits down on the floor, a cookie in one hand, and a glass of milk in the other.

"What about it?"

"I keep flashing back to what you said that day…" he pauses, and glances at Melissa.

I somehow know exactly what he's talking about, and it makes my heart race. For the first time since we got married, something my husband said is making me nervous…

"…about if what was happening was good idea…"

My eyes instantly water, and I feel the first few tears trickle down my cheeks. Feeling totally defeated, I stand up, wipe my cheeks, and look him right in the eyes.

"You gotta follow your heart, Leonard. No one can ever fault you for that…" I say, then turn and go out the door.

Two minutes later, I'm sitting at the water's edge, full on crying. Although Leonard just made a half-assed attempt at blaming it on music, I know that it isn't even remotely responsible for what appears to be a big problem in our marriage.


	8. Chapter 6

_**SIX**_

"You're totally nuts – the whole damn bunch of you!"

Poor Richard is about as close to the edge as one can get, without falling over.

There are fifteen of us in the conference room – _Lemonade Mouth_, _Ransom_, Terri, Stephen, Max – the lead roadie – and Richard.

"It was their idea," Charlie says, pointing at the kids, and making everyone laugh.

"It can work Mr. Galley – we just need the chance to put some planning into it," Joshua says, as the other members of _Ransom_ chime in their agreement.

"He's right, Rick," Stephen offers, "the kids are already playing at, or near, nine of LM's confirmed venues. Give me a day or so to rearrange…"

Richard quickly interrupts him.

"Confirmed?"

"Yeah," I say, joining the conversation. "Our online voting ended yesterday, and Mo has already figured out where we're going – or at least where _we would like to go_ – and in the most logical order. We just aren't sure where we want to start."

Mo, with a big grin on her face, stands up and hands Richard a single sheet of paper. He glances at it, and starts reading it out loud…

"London – O2; Paris – Omnisport; Berlin – O2 World…"

"We figure to use the larger venues this time, assuming you sign off on these guys playing together," Stephen says. Richard nods, and continues.

"Madrid – Madrid Arena; Tokyo – Budokan. Interesting. You guys have never played Japan."

"First time for everything," Mo offers.

"Sydney – Superdome…" He pauses, glances at the five of us, and then asks, "_You guys_ laid this out?"

"And that's surprising why?" I ask. "We _have_ done the 'tour' thing a few times you know..."

He gives me a 'look', and continues reading.

"Vancouver – Rogers Arena; Los Angeles – Staples; Toronto – Air Canada Center; New York – MSG, and…"

He again pauses, and gets a strange look on his face.

"Wichita – Intrust Bank Arena… _Wichita?"_

"Sure!" Wen says, "It's almost smack in the middle of the country. We figure fans from Utah to Kentucky would rather get to Kansas, than NYC or LA…"

"Besides," Mo adds, "you'd freak if you saw how many votes there were for 'somewhere in the Midwest'…"

Nine heads turn immediately, and look at the members of _Ransom_, and after a few seconds, everyone starts laughing. Richard turns his attention back to the page, and after a second of contemplation, we can tell he's counting.

"Hey – there are only eleven…"

"Mo laughs, and says, "We have a plan for that too. Wanna hear it?"

Richard shakes his head in confusion and disbelief, and then mumbles, "Sure… why not?"

"Once the tour starts, I'm going to list it on the website as the 'Secret Show' – only to be revealed _if_ the rest of the tour sells out, and to be invitation only."

"_What?"_

"We're going to get them to log in, and sign up. I'll be posting updates every other day, and as the venues report, I'll post the info. If it comes off as planned, we do the last show at a smaller venue, and limit attendance to say… 1200 to 1500 – so that both bands can interact with the fans."

"Where?"

"We can't tell ya that, Richard, it's a secret…" Charlie says, with a straight face.

As everyone starts laughing again, I look at Stella – who hasn't said a word since she got here. It's apparent something's wrong…

"Richard," Terri says, "the label has _got_ to do this – simply because of who's involved. You know damn well, that once it's over, _this_ will be the tour _everyone_ will be talking about for at least the next ten years..."

"Mr. Galley," Misty says, a big grin on her face, "just give us the chance. We swear we'll make every other show on our tour, and every commitment you have for the band – even if it kills us. Just let us do this…"

As she talking, Richard's secretary comes in, goes directly to Stephen, whispers something to him, and then leaves. Stephen immediately pulls his phone from his pocket and turns it on.

"Sorry guys, the boss said to call him – as in _right now_. Something about what we're discussing apparently."

We watch him dial, and listen as he talks to the head of the production company.

"Hey Walter, what's up? Uh-huh… yeah. Not sure, Richard hasn't committed yet. What's that? _No freakin' way dude!_ That's monumental! Let me finish this, and I'll get back to you with what they decide."

He closes his phone, and with a twinkle in his eyes, and a gigantic smile on his face, turns and looks right a Mo.

"Here's the thing about the internet, Mo. When you set the site up to post the results of the voting, _everyone_ gets to see it…"

We all turn and glance at Mo, who looks totally confused.

"In this case, _everyone_ includes the booking agents of the venues in the areas in question…"

"Oh… my… god…" I mutter, looking at Wendell, and seeing realization in his eyes as well.

"And that means?" Terri asks, looking as confused as Mo.

"Six of the venues on that list, assuming, from the numbers Mo posted, that they will be one of show locations, have already contacted the office and are asking questions. Care to guess what the two most popular ones are?"

This is when Richard's little light bulb goes on.

"No shit…" he mumbles, glancing at me.

_"Stephen?"_ Mo says, now more than a bit anxious.

"The fans figured out from your numbers, where the shows will most likely be, and have been calling the venues asking about ticket prices and…"

_"What!"_ Misty blurts out, sounding totally exasperated.

"…and if there will be more than one show at each location. Walter just told me that both the O2 locations have indicated that based queries so far, that they can easily support two shows, and perhaps a third in London. LA and Toronto have both suggested two shows."

"Damn… this is going to get completely out of hand…" Richard says, shaking his head, and looking right at me.

"Don't go there, Richard. I'm a big girl, and I'm not going to do anything stupid. No matter how many shows there are, I'll stick to the rules, okay?"

He nods, forces a smile, and then turns and looks at Max.

"You certain your guys are up for this monumentally insane adventure?"

"Crap, Rick, _are you kidding?_ I wouldn't miss this for the world! Besides, can you imagine how it's gonna look on my freakin' resume?"

"Well hell, guys, let's go on tour, shall we?" Richard says, lowering his head, and rubbing his temples.

The room erupts in cheers and clapping, and it's the members of _Ransom_ who are making the most noise. I however, turn and again look at the only person in the room who isn't happy – quite the opposite apparently. She's just sitting there, between Wen and Charlie, staring off into space. When I shift my gaze to Mo, I realize she too, sees we have a problem…


	9. Chapter 7

_**SEVEN**_

When I see Stella leave the room, I try to get Richard to stop talking, so I can follow her. Unfortunately, by the time he does, Stella has disappeared. Although I know she has a rental car, when I get to the parking lot, I have no idea which, if any of them, might be hers.

I do know this has gone far enough, and I have every intention of finding out what the heck is going on with her. On my way back to the meeting I run into Mo, who it turns out is trying to do the same thing I am.

"I have no idea, Mo. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen. And you're right – she's upset about something. _Seriously upset_."

"We have twenty-nine days to find out what, and fix it. Taking her on tour, in the condition she's in, isn't an option."

"Where's she staying?"

"I dunno… she never spoke to me…"

"Let's go ask Richard."

Everyone is still chatting away about the tour details, when we get back to the conference room, and I quickly grab Richard and pull him aside.

"Where is Stella staying?"

"I don't know. She didn't tell you guys?"

"Why would she ask, if she had, Richard?" Mo blurts out in frustration.

Richard immediately understands the seriousness of the situation.

"Let's ask Melanie," he says, pulling out his phone and dialing. "Where's Stella staying? What? Why not? Okay… relax… not your fault." He closes his phone and looks at us.

"She hasn't even spoken to Stella, and never made her a reservation. What's going on…?"

I'm digging my phone out of my pocket as Mo answers him.

"That's what we are trying to figure out, Richard," she says in a whispered tone, "and you need to be quiet about it until we do!"

"Leonard, it's Olivia. What's up with Stella," I say, the moment he answers.

_"Huh?" _he replies, sounding… well… 'concerned', I suppose. "She's in LA…" he continues, "at the same meeting you're supposed to be at – for the tour."

I take a deep breath, then tell him what happened during the meeting and, that at the moment, we can't find her. When I'm done, there is a long, hanging silence.

"Leonard… you have to tell me what's going on. I can't help her if don't know what the problem is…"

"It's _our_ problem, Olivia – a _family_ problem. _We_ need to fix it… _not the band_. I'm sorry…"

_"Seriously,Leonard? That's your answer?"_ I blurt out, as I feel myself getting angry. "_Stella is family_ to us, and we'll be here for her. You too, _are family_… or at least I thought you were. I can't believe you'd do this, but have it your way. Goodbye."

I'm so angry, I hang up on him before I can stop myself. But, at least now I know what the root of the issue is. The moment Mo looks at me, her eyes tell me she too, realizes where the problem is.

"We have to find her first, Olivia."

"Uh-huh. Richard, you need to hush about this until we fix it. Understood?

"Crap… you do realize the tour starts in…"

"Yeah, yeah… we know that. Since this whole thing started, have we ever let you down?" Mo asks.

"Sorry… that was the manager in me. Go find her her…"

We kiss him on the cheek, and as we're turning for the door, my phone rings. When I look at the Caller ID, I have no idea who it is. I'm about to put it back in my pocket and ignore the call, when something – perhaps the stress of the moment – makes me answer it.

"Olivia."

"It's me, Ms White…"

"I recognize the voice the moment I hear it, and quickly glance around the room. Sure enough, _Ransom's_ bass player is missing…

"_Vanessa?_ Where the heck are you?"

"About twelve blocks away," she replies.

"Doing what?"

"Following Ms Yamada… and she's _really_ upset about something."

"Where are you – look at a street sign."

"We followed Wilshire, under the interstate, and kept going until we reached the park…"

"MacArthur Park? You're in MacArthur Park?"

"Well… more like on the edge of it. She's sitting next to a tree, by herself, crying…"

"You are the smartest damn kid I know! You stay right there, Vanessa, and keep an eye on her. If she moves, you call me back – immediately. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"We're on our way."

As I close the phone, I turn and discover our secret is out. I have ten zoned faces staring at me – including my husband's.

"Damn… me and my big mouth." I say, shaking my head.

There are a number of snickers in the room, but the mood remains serious.

"You," I point at Wendell, Charlie, Max, and Terri, "need to keep this mess on track. Mo and I are going to go deal with our 'issue'. We'll be back in a bit."

"My car is just outside the back door – if you guys need a ride?" Stephen offers.

"Perfect! We need to be at MacArthur Park – ten minutes ago…"

Stephen is in the hall before I finish my sentence.


	10. Chapter 8

_**EIGHT**_

For some reason, I can't seem to stop the damn tears. I try to take my mind somewhere else, and each time, it goes right back to Leonard.

Is this my fault? Should I have given this silly crap up the first time? I keep saying I can, but each time the opportunity presents itself, I'm off making music again… and performing.

As I'm wiping the tears off my face for the 100th time, I feel a presence behind me. After a second, I hear a voice that I immediately recognize – a voice I spent hours arguing with, once upon a time.

"Miss Yamada?"

"Awww… crap," I blurt out, turning around, and finding Vanessa, _Ransom's_ bass player, walking up behind me. The moment I speak, she stops in her tracks.

"Sorry… I'll go away… I didn't mean to…"

"You're here, and we know you called 'someone', so just sit down."

Still she hesitates, and I can tell by her facial expression, I've scared her.

"Jezzzz, I'm sorry, Ness, it just came out. I'm wound a bit tight at the moment."

When she still hesitates, I glare at her.

"Quit this, and come talk to me. Hell, you did follow me, didn't you?"

She finally concedes, takes a seat opposite me on the grass, and does nothing more than stare at me.

"Why?"

"Because you needed someone…"

"How would you know that?"

She again sits and stares at me, her eyes telling me she's struggling with something of her own.

"Well?"

"It was about me…" she says, her eyes beginning to glass over, as the tears build.

"_Huh?"_

"_Hostage… _Miss White wrote the lyrics about me…"

As I sit staring at her, I try to understand. Even as the lyrics are playing in my head, I find myself wondering what it must have been like for a fifteen year old to suffer the kind of heartbreak, and emotional struggle, the song is about.

"It's hard Miss Yamada – but then you spent a whole year making the six of us see that hard, _is not_ impossible. You, of all the people I know, probably have a better understanding of _hard_, than any of the rest of us."

As the tears once again begin to escape my eyes, I suddenly realize that a nineteen year old, with pigtails, just put a foot to my ass… and she did it with total class.

"I'm just scared, Vanessa. Too much, all at once, and I'm just not sure I can handle it all."

"You only have to handle one thing at a time. No one will expect more than that."

"Yeah, but the problem is, which thing is the most important?"

She reaches up, wipes her cheeks, and laughs at me.

"You know full well what is most important… and so do your _friends_…"

"So… what happened… with the guy from the song…?"

"He went back to school the day before we flew out here. I'm going to try to sneak him into one of the shows after his classes are out."

"You and he are still…"

Again she laughs.

"Yeah… I love him, and I couldn't just give up. What can I say?

"And do you guys… well…"

"Yes ma'am, we intend to try to make a life together… once we each find our direction. He has to finish school, and I need to get this whole 'rock star' thing out of my system."

This time I laugh.

"If he loves you, the way you apparently love him, you being a roc…."

All of a sudden, in the middle of the sentence, it hits me – like a truck load of bricks. When I suddenly quit talking, Vanessa looks confused.

"Miss Yamada?"

"Will you _please_ quit with the Miss… I'm Stella. Got it?"

She smiles and says, "If you say so… even if it seems weird."

"Come on," I say, jumping up and brushing myself off. "Let's get back and make sure the rest of them aren't screwing up our tour!"

She laughs, stands up, and as we're turning toward the street, we see Olivia and Mo getting out of an SUV that has pulled up on the sidewalk. I feel Vanessa touch my shoulder, and turn to look at her.

"Can I ask a favor?"

"Of course…" I reply, pretty sure I know what it is.

"What I just told you… about the song…"

"Told me what? About what song?" I quickly reply, grinning.

"Thanks."

I turn, look at Mo and Olivia – who are almost running over to us – and yell, "Damn… can't a girl sneak off, without the world coming to a halt?"

They stop dead in their tracks, side by side, about ten yards from us. I laugh, take Vanessa's hand, and we race across the grass, right past them, to the still idling SUV. As I'm opening the door, I turn and see that the two of them are still standing there, looking at me like I'm crazy.

"Girls… there are a bunch of GUYS sitting around a table, planning _our_ tour. Do you seriously trust them to do that?"

Vanessa starts laughing, and is followed my Mo, and then being unable to stop herself, Olivia joins in, shaking her head. The two of them are headed back toward the SUV when I hear a voice… _a male voice_… behind me say, "I freakin' heard that, Stella…"

Fifteen minutes later, we walk back into the conference room, and being the professionals they each are, no one questions anything. It's right back to business.

With the help of a _friend_, I've found a path, and understand that I need to stay on it.

All I can do at this point is give _him_ a chance, and hope he finds the same path…


	11. Chapter 9

_**NINE**_

Opening night. Probably the most insanely magical part of any tour. And for each of us, totally addicting.

After researching the logistics, Richard and Stephen agreed that we laid out the most logical route, so they went with it. Although we asked for their opinions, the members of _Ransom_ said the starting point was up to us. We decided on O2 in London, because it would require three shows.

Because _Ransom_ is committed to more shows than we are, they actually have two openings. The kids start a week before us, and their first show is at BankUnited Center in Miami. Two days later, they play two sold out shows at AT&T Performing Arts Center, in Dallas. I find it amusing that Wen and Charlie, without a word to anyone, get into the first show in Dallas, and even make it onto the floor, in front of the stage. When they tell us about it on the plane to England, you can see the amazement in their eyes.

Tonight, however, the rest of us are going to get to see it for ourselves.

The five of us are standing in a line at the bottom of the backstage stairs, when the six of them come in from the Green Room. Without a word, we all raise our hands, and each of them, high-fives each of us as they climb the stairs, and disappear into the darkness.

Seconds later, we hear their intro…

_Music fans! Welcome to The O2!_

_Here tonight we have what may  
__turn out to be the show of the  
__decade! _

_Tonight, two of the greatest pop  
__bands of this generation, will  
__share the O2 stage._

_The O2 is proud and honored to  
__present, on their first trip to the  
__United Kingdom…_

_**RANSOM!**_

The instant response from the crowd is almost deafening. Within seconds, the kids are tearing it up, and have the entire audience involved.

As we stand at the back edge of the stage, watching, a realization strikes me, and I flash back to something I said to Olivia… in the back room of the Hall, in Churchtown…

'_Although God gave me the gift of music, I believe He always intended I use it to make our kind of music…'_

_This_… is what the five of us are _supposed_ to be doing… what we are _best_ at.

As I glance at the others – Wen and Olivia holding hands, Charlie holding Bailey, and Stella holding Melissa, their faces, and the satisfaction I see on them, tells me they've gone to the same place I have…

_Our first opening night at MSG… _forever ago.

The rush I experience in that moment makes my entire body shudder, and the tears come.

We stand quietly – pretty much mesmerized – and watch _Ransom_ play through their _entire_ set, breaking into applause along with the crowd. As they file past us, down the stairs, each of us realizes that in their own right, _Ransom_ has become a kick-butt rock band.

I watch as Vanessa stops next to Stella, takes her hands, leans in close and whispers something to her. Then Stella hugs her… a serious, emotion-filled hug. Then, the six of them disappear.

As we make our preshow circle, I look at Stella, her eyes full of tears, and ask, "Was it something you can share?"

She smiles, looks at each of us, and says, "Vanessa said it was all about us… for what we did for them…"

Then Olivia, with that same goofy, good-girl grin on her face, sticks out her right arm. When we pull back, we yell so loud, that some of the fans near the stage hear us, and the place goes nuts.

Olivia, with an amazing twinkle in her eyes, laughs, and says, "It's opening night – let's be different guys. Follow me…" which of course we do.

For the first time since we've been performing live, we walk out onto a fully lit stage before anyone announces – or even notices – us. I walk to my bass, pick it up, and put it over my shoulders. Stella is doing the same with her guitar, as Wen and Charlie laugh and head for their gear. When I turn and look behind me, I see why they're laughing. The stage crew, and the announcer, are freaking out, which makes me laugh as well. When Stella looks at me, I simply point behind me.

Then we hear Olivia, who is standing at the front edge of the stage, mic in hand.

_"Hey London!"_

The place erupts.

"Pretty cool how we just snuck right up here, huh?"

The rest of us are checking our levels, and tuning, as Olivia does what she does better than _anyone_… amps a crowd.

"So guys… did we pick the right opening act, _or what_?"

Once again, the crowd is off the hook, and as I turn to look at Wen for a timing queue, I catch the kids standing at the stairs, watching. I step over to my mic, tap it a couple of times to see if it's powered, and say, "You guys," and point right at the six of them, "need to come up here and give your fans another bow!"

Stella looks at me, taps her heart and points at me, as _Ransom_ goes center stage, and takes yet another bow for the screaming crowd. Olivia smiles, hugs each of them, and waits until they're all backstage again, before continuing…

"So… it's going to be hard to follow those guys, but we're going to give it a shot…"

Once Terri catches up, the lights go down, and Wen starts the intro to _Turn up the Music,_ which is what we decided to open every show with – mostly because it's our very first song. What truly amazes us, and brings me, Stella, and Olivia, to tears, is that by the very first chorus, the crowd has totally taken over the vocals. Although we keep playing, all Olivia can do is stand at the front of the stage, her hand over her heart, and let the tears come.

Even after all this time, apparently, we still mean something to a lot of people…

We play all our hits – the ones that made it into the top ten – plus three from the new album, and each time, the crowd sings along. It's totally amazing. And of course, when we play _Determinate_, we have two hundred people doing 'the slide' – _almost in perfect unison_ – right in front of the stage, and the two cutest five year olds, doing it on stage with us. Based on their response, the crowd thinks it's the coolest thing they've ever seen.

We play _Journeys End_ for the encore… simply because it seems to fit… again.

Once it's over, I find a quiet spot between some equipment, and sit down on the floor. As I make myself wind down, I again slip into a memory…

_"I miss it Marti… I really, really, miss it. And, I really miss them…"_

This is in fact, what I am supposed to be doing, and for the life of me, can't imagine _not_ doing it. I find myself silently hoping _He_ will let me continue to do it… with the four of them.


	12. Chapter 10

_**TEN**_

My way of winding down, is to wipe down, and put away my guitars – myself. All the roadies know about it, and generally leave my stuff alone. Once I have the Strat safely in its case, I turn and head for the Green Room. I'm a few feet short of the tunnel door, when I see Mo sitting alone, on the floor, behind the shipping cases. I pull up short, walk over, and sit down next to her.

"Who knew?"

"Terri did," she quickly replies. "Remember her comment when we dropped the idea on Richard?"

I laugh.

"As a matter of fact, I do. So, you okay?"

"Are you?" she retorts.

"I will be. For now, it's all about the music. Tomorrow will bring what it does."

"He's good and decent guy, Stel…"

"He is… and I love him, with everything I am. But he has to figure out what makes him happy."

"Don't give up on him, Stella…"

"Oh… no way. I mean come on, Mo – have you _ever_ known me to make things 'easy'?"

She finally turns and looks at me, and when our eyes meet, I can tell she understands.

"He still loves me, Mo… I'm just going to make sure he remembers that…"

She leans over, and hugs me.

"No matter what, I'm here for you… _for both of you_."

"Cool. Now come on," I say, getting to my feet and pulling Mo to hers, "let's go be rock stars!"

She cracks up laughing, and then arm in arm, we go to find the others.


	13. Chapter 11

_**ELEVEN**_

The European part of the tour rolls on… every weekend (we inevitably end up doing two shows at each venue – go figure?) during May. Knowing we'll have to go non-stop through July and into August, Richard gives us two weeks in June, as down time.

Although no tour is ever without its issues, large and small, the nature of this tour quickly makes it 'high-visibility', and the entire music world is watching. Our 'issue' occurs, while Richard is with us, between the second and third shows in Sydney…

_"What the hell?"_ Wen blurts outs, jumping from the bed.

The moment I hear the commotion in the hall, I mimic his comment.

We throw some clothes on, all the while listening to what sounds like a fight in the hall outside our room. As Wen is reaching for the door, someone or something is slammed against it. The moment Wen opens the door, we find _Ransom's_ lead guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist, in the hall, in various stages of dress (or undress) apparently in a fight with some Australian guys. Behind them, screaming for them to stop, are the girls.

Within seconds, the hotel's concierge, and a number of police, come out of the elevator and rush down the hall. As the police restrain the locals, Wen and Charlie grab our guys, and try to calm them down. It's immediately apparent that the whole bunch of them – the girls included – are pretty much drunk.

With the assistance of the concierge, Richard is able to calm things down. He assures them that all damages will be taken care of, and that he will make sure it doesn't happen again while we're here. He tells the police we aren't interested in 'filing charges', and the police convince the locals it's in their best interest to let it go, and call it a night. The three of them are all for that. As they turn to head for the elevator, everyone hears Stella...

_"HEY!"_

Everyone turns and finds Stella, standing there in an oversized t-shirt, with her hand on her hips, and a face so red, she very well may explode.

"That's a bunch of damn crap! How about you jerks, step up, and behave like _men_? _All damn six of you!_"

The really cool thing is, _every single one of them_ gets it. As the Australians turn back toward our guys, Stella holds up her hand to the police, and we all watch quietly, as the six of them shake hands, and apologize to each other. Then, the Aussies turn and again head for the elevator. We hear one of the cops mumble "amazing" as the elevator doors close. Once the hall is clear, a still visibly pissed off Stella points at the room they were partying in, and without a word, all six of the kids file in. She pushes past Richard – almost knocking him over – following them, and we follow her.

"So… you've found your 'rock star' personas, huh? I do wish you could have done it after one of _your_ shows… not after one of ours. I'm not really qualified to judge any of you, and I'm damn sure no one's babysitter, but I will say this. I want the six of you to think long and hard about this disaster, because while I am spending half the day tomorrow trying to smooth it out with the press, I will damn sure be thinking about the six of you."

We watch her turn and head for the still open door, pausing when she reaches it.

"Oh… and just for the record, I am _totally fucking disappointed _in all of you…"

She's only two steps outside the door when Richard starts talking.

"I can't take the chance kids, I'm gonna have to pull the plug…"

Stella stops dead in her tracks, spins around, and comes back into the room.

_"The hell you are, Richard! _These little rock-star wannabes said they were ready to play in our world – _on our tour_ – and by God, they _are_ going to finish what they started!"

Richard turns and looks at Stella, then glances at me and Wen. Even before Richard can respond, Stella is on the kids again.

"Isn't that right…?" she says, glaring at them in a fashion that would have scared the crap out of me.

When no one says anything, she walks back across the room, and gets right in Joshua's face.

_"Right?"_

"Yes ma'am," he instantly blurts out.

Each of them repeats the 'yes ma'am' as she looks at them. When she's satisfied, she turns, says, "I'm going back to bed," and disappears down the hall.

Richard turns and looks at them, shakes his head, and says, "For some bizarre reason, that woman has an infinite amount of faith and confidence you guys…" Then he turns, and he too, leaves the room.

They're all staring at me, as if expecting I'm going to blast them too. Instead, I turn and go out the door. Wen however has a comment.

"Rehearsal at 10 am guys, final sound check is at 5 pm. Make sure you're at both, and are ready to work."

I hear their door click shut behind me, as I am opening ours. Once we're back in bed, Wen turns off the lights, and I roll over and put my head on his chest.

"I swear, Wendell, she is the most powerful, and amazing woman I know…"

"No kidding! When I grow up, I wanna be just like Stella…"

I start giggling and let my mind wander…


	14. Chapter 12

_**TWELVE**_

The moment I see them in the Green Room, I know they're all hurting… badly. It's the very first time I've seen the girls without any form of make-up, and they actually do look like they 'just woke up'. It takes all of my willpower, not to laugh. The instant they see us, they each start doing something, trying to act as if they're busy, probably hoping we aren't going to start in on them. I nudge Wen with my elbow, he laughs, and mumbles, "I see…"

Moments later, Charlie comes in with Melissa in one arm, and Bailey in the other. Following them is Georgia, who walks up to us immediately.

"I was there…" she says, looking so guilty, any jury would have hung her on the spot.

_"Excuse me?"_ Wen says, glaring at her.

"Stella and Charlie had the girls with them, and well…"

"Let it go, Wendell," we hear Stella say, and turn to see her coming in the door, with Terri and Richard alongside her. "She didn't have to come tell you – she chose to."

"You're the boss…" Wen replies, squeezing my hand, and smiling.

Then, to our total amazement, a _very_ hung-over Joshua, and Rhyan, walk over and stop in front of Wendell.

"It isn't her fault Mr. Gifford – we sorta coerced her into it," Rhyan – _Ransom'_s drummer – says, his eyes instantly dropping to the floor.

"And not that it's much good as a defense, but she only had one drink, and didn't even finish it," Joshua adds. "Being smarter than the rest of us, she bailed before it got stupid."

"And I just spent ninety minutes, with twelve reporters, who would have liked nothing better, than to get the chance to hang the six of you out to dry…" Stella says, stopping right next to us. "They were using terms like 'immature' and 'unprofessional'…"

"Damn…" Vanessa mutters, immediately glancing at Richard.

"Yeah…" Richard says, _"Damn…"_

Then, much to our amazement, without any further explanation, Stella goes and gets a cup of coffee, turns to face us again, and asks, "So, you rock stars ready to rehearse?"

Sorta stunned, the guys – and the rest of the band as well – all turn and look at us.

"She," I point at Stella, "asked, not me." It's taking every ounce of willpower I have, not to laugh.

The six of them look at Stella, and say, "Yes ma'am," in unison.

Stella turns and heads for the stage, with _Ransom_ right behind her. The four of us, Georgia, and the girls, bring up the rear.

Because they're opening, the stage is setup with _Ransom's_ instruments, and each of them, goes right to theirs.

"Anything in particular you want to hear?" Vanessa asks, as they power up their instruments, and amps.

We know that almost any of their songs, played through amps, is going to scramble their already pounding heads, and for just a moment, the possibility Stella will say _High Speed Rush_ – their title song – kinda freaks me out.

"As a matter of fact…" Stella says, a devious little sneer on her face, as she picks up her acoustic practice guitar from a stand, at the back of the stage. The very second she winks at Charlie, I know it's a set up, and I relax.

Charlie tells Bailey and Melissa to go hang out with Georgia, who is sitting on the floor near the stairs, then points at Rhyan indicating he wants to use his drums. Rhyan immediately gets out of the way, and watches as Charlie takes the stool, and starts a beat – which I recognize immediately. Apparently Vanessa knows the song as well, and almost immediately the bass line starts. Within seconds, Stella jumps in on lead, and everyone with an instrument falls in. As I grab a mic, I turn and find Georgia smiling, and the girls already dancing to the music. When Misty looks at me, I raise my eyebrows, and wiggle the mic in my hand, which prompts her to quickly get one as well.

By the time Stella makes it to the first chorus, most of the roadies, and all of the technicians, are tapping their feet, and clapping.

Misty stops next to me, and we watch Stella and Joshua trade rifts, as Vanessa keep thumping along on her bass. Ariel – the rhythm guitarist – is making it up as she goes, which is cool considering the song was written for two guitars.

After about two minutes of improvising, Stella points at Vanessa, and she cuts the bass line and waits, as Stella and Charlie, do a count and start at the beginning again. The moment Vanessa joins them, Charlie stands up, gives Rhyan his sticks, and when they hit the first verse, Misty and I give it ago. Although Martin covers the keyboards – and does a pretty good job of it – Wendell is actually generating the effects and the background track, on his Roland. The little red haired girl with the freckles, and I, wait a couple of beats, and then start singing alternate lines. When we reach the chorus, _everyone_ sings… It's totally amazing, and is probably the best rendition of _Begin Again_, there will ever be – mostly because it's totally improvised and impromptu.

Stella, being the amazing person she is, manages to make her point, using something as simple as a song. Once we're done, the four of us, and the girls, head off to find something to eat, leaving _Ransom_ to finish rehearsing. I notice that when Georgia stays behind, Wen doesn't say a word.

Mo's absence is blatantly apparent, as we walk into the cafeteria, in hopes of finding breakfast.

"Should we be worried about Mo?" I ask, as Charlie holds the door open.

"Nawww…" Wen quickly replies from behind me.

"How do _you_ know?" Stella asks, looking a bit baffled.

We hear Charlie laugh behind us, as he and Bailey bring up the rear.

"Because she's sitting right there."

We turn and look, and sure enough, Mo is sitting at a table alone, a cup of coffee, and a half eaten bagel in front of her. We walk over and take seats with her.

"Good morning, Sunshine," I say, just to get a rise out of her.

"I think I did a really stupid thing…"

"More stupid than what the kids did at the hotel last night?" Stella asks, pouring a cup of coffee, and passing the carafe to me.

Having figured out what's going on, I let out a small laugh, then lean over and hug her as tightly as I can.

"You know full well, it's only stupid… if Mo thinks it is. You're a big girl…"

"Was it your heart… or your head that put you up to it," Stella asks, and she spreads jam on a bagel for Melissa.

"I honestly don't know. I do know that at that exact moment, I just really wanted to. And, as strange as it is, he's actually a really nice guy…"

Everyone goes quiet when she pauses, and after glancing at each of us, she adds, "I'm pretty sure it was that damn accent…"

Because of the kind of person Mo is, I'm fairly certain she's never done anything like this before. I think it actually shows each of us, that she's, well… just a girl.

As we're laughing and teasing Mo, Stella suddenly starts vomiting – _violently_. It's so sudden, that it ends up on the table, and all down the front of her, before she can cover her mouth. Melissa is immediately upset by it, and jumps up from the table. Charlie quickly grabs her before she can run off.

_"Mommy!"_ she screams, _"You're doing it again!"_

We all look at her, and she starts mumbling 'mommy's sick' over and over.

_"Again?"_ I ask, as I help Stella straighten up, and wipe the mess off her shirt.

"It's nothing… guys… don't worry about it," she replies. The moment we make eye contact, I know…

"Stella, you never were a very good liar," Mo says, handing her a glass of water.

Once she is back to breathing normally, I look her right in the eyes, and ask, "Every morning?"

"Olivia…" she starts to say, but is interrupted by Mo.

"Oh… my… God… Why the hell didn't you tell us?"

"What's going on?" Wen asks.

"And you left without telling him… didn't you?"

"It can't be about this… it can't. It has to be about what _he_ wants to do…" she blurts out, as she starts to cry.

Suddenly, Mo is angry… and although I get it, I would have never expected it.

_"Damn it, Stella! How is that even remotely fair?"_

"Come on girls," I hear Charlie say behind me, as he gathers up the kids, their breakfast, and heads for the hall, "let's go eat somewhere else, and let the silly grown-ups fuss for a while."

_"Let's go on the stage!"_ we hear Bailey blurt out, as they disappear around the corner.

Within seconds, Mo starts back in.

"How can you expect him make a decision about something, when he doesn't have all the facts? _How is that fair?_ You said you were going to give him a chance…"

"Mo… he has to stay because he wants to be with me – not because of the kids. If he stays only because he feels responsible for the kids, we'll both spend the next fifteen years being miserable… can't you see that?"

_"Kids?"_ Wen blurts out, finally catching on.

"I take it you intend to have this one?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

_"Hell yes!"_

_"Man_… wait until Richard…" Wen mumbles, letting the thought fade into the tenseness of the moment. When all of us look at him, he quickly adds, "Guys – _seriously!_ As weirded out as he was about Olivia, can you imagine his response to _two_ pregnant women?"

"Mo's right, Stella, you have to tell your husband – before this goes any further," I say, squeezing the hand I've been holding the entire time.

She's staring right at me, eyes locked to mine, and in a single instant, she understands.

"Uh-huh," I offer, as she glances at Wendell, "he let me go, and gave me a chance. He didn't have to, but he did – and I figured it out."

She starts crying – again. Hesitating for a few seconds, Wen sits down on the other side of her, and makes her look at him.

"Stel… we can handle this – honest. We'll get Josh to cover…"

"No, Wendell, leaving won't solve anything," she quickly replies, interrupting him. "The problem is actually _my life_. All of this," she waves her hands to indicate the arena, "is what he's having problems with. And even if I wanted to, there's no way I can simply walk away from it. This…" she pauses, and wipes her cheeks, "is what Stella is all about. This…" she pauses again, and sucks in a huge breath, "_…is what I do. _What _we _do…"

_"Damn that jerk…"_ we hear Mo mumble.

"Mo?" Wen asks.

She ignores him, and looks right at Stella.

"You know how I feel about him, Stella… and always will. I still hold to my belief he's a good and decent man. But at this exact moment, I have a driving urge to put my foot in his ass… I swear…"

Then, for no apparent reason, Stella sits straight up, wipes her tears, and says, "None of you says a damn word about any of this."

The moment I turn to my left, I see what prompted her comment. Richard and Terri are walking toward us.

I laugh, and whisper, "I'll bet you a dollar, they both know already…"

The moment I say it, Wen laughs, and Richard yells at us.

_"Of course I know, you knuckleheads… it's my job to know!"_

"What the hell…?" Stella blurts out, as the two of them grab chairs from an adjoining table and join us at ours.

"The babysitter ratted you out," Terri says, grinning. "And, _congrats_." She leans over and hugs Stella.

"Georgia?" Wen says.

"Oh come on guys, the girl has been around Stella in a very… 'personal' way, for the last five weeks. A week ago, she pulled me aside, and told me what's going on. She's really concerned about you Stella…"

Stella glances at Wen, and smiles.

"Seems little sister is just as awesome as her big brother…"

"And for the record, all my spies say it's the worst case of morning sickness they've ever seen someone deal with. Were you just going to suffer through it, or what?"

"I was trying to keep it a _secret_, Richard."

"Well, my son is waiting for you in the Green Room…"

"Your son?" Stella says in the middle of his sentence.

"Yes… my son – Marcus. I asked him to fly out, so we can keep this in-house…"

"Because?"

"You need a damn doctor, Mrs. Faintree… so I got one. Besides, I already have one pregnant female on my tour…"

Everyone laughs, and Mo comments.

"Your son is a doctor?"

"A surgeon actually – but he assures me he can handle a couple of pregnant women. Now," Richard turns and looks right at Stella, "will you _please_ go talk to him?"

Stella stands up, steps over to Richard, and hugs him.

"Thank you… for the last fourteen years," she says, tears still trickling down her cheeks.

I too, stand up. I look at Wendell, and say, "I suppose a chat with a doctor can't do me any harm either…"

"No, but it will probably serve to calm our Manager down a bit…" Wen replies.

As Stella and I turn toward the door, we hear Terri.

"And by the way, yesterday your husband called me directly, to ask about you…"

Stella stops dead, turns, and looks at Terri.

"No, Stella, I didn't say anything. I told him you're fine, and the tour is going excellent. Strangely though, he asked me not to tell you he called…"

The devious little sneer on Terri's face tells me everything I need to know. And, as we turn to continue out of the cafeteria, I catch a glimpse of Mo – furiously typing on her phone. The smile that spreads across my face is because I know exactly who she's texting.


	15. Chapter 13

_**THIRTEEN**_

After the third show in Sydney, we're all ready for a break.

_Ransom_ leaves the following morning, headed for Seattle. They do two small shows there, then one in Portland, before heading home to Kansas for a week.

When Charlie and Wendell ask if they can go to Seattle, I laugh and tell them Georgia and I can handle the kids. They take a different flight, and with the help of the road crew, manage to sneak into to the Seattle show. They're so blown away by the performance, Charlie later tells us that, when they're on their own, 'it's as if they are a different band'.

The girls – me, Stella, Mo, Georgia, Terri, and of course, Melissa and Bailey – spend two days being touristy in Sydney. Once we've spent a sufficient amount of money, and have signed easily in excess of a million autographs, (okay… so that's an exaggeration – but my hand feels like it was a million) we too, head home, to wind down.

At the airport in LA, Stella says her goodbyes, rents a car, and heads for Tahoe. Melissa is totally amped to finally see her father. We tell her good luck, and wave as they drive off. Mo, Georgia, Bailey, and I, fly on to Albuquerque.

Because she had an assignment to deal with at the paper, Vicki flew over a week prior to drop the baby off with Charlie's parents. Charlie is there when we arrive, and although Bailey is a bit disappointed her mom isn't there, the moment she sees Dad, all is as it should be.

On the third day home, I walk into the kitchen, and catch Mo and Vicki… well… 'up to something'. When I call them on it, Mo explains her little campaign. She fully intends to get us into Red Rocks – for the Secret Show. Although I try to be positive, I have my doubts.

Seven days later, we're off to do two shows in Vancouver, BC, which come off without a hitch. Since the incident in Sydney, the members of _Ransom_ have been perfect little angels… much to our surprise. I find out why, in the limo on the way to the airport. Joshua, Rhyan, and Martin, ask if they can ride with us, so Wen, Charlie, and the girls, ride in the second limo.

"Ms Yamada, I really need to say something to you," Rhyan says, looking more serious than I have yet seen him. "Everyone keeps telling me to let it go, but I can't."

Mo and I look at each other, but keep quiet.

"What's up, Rhyan?"

"I need to thank you…"

"So do we," Joshua and Martin add.

"For?" she replies, looking genuinely confused.

"I've done my share of stupid crap in my life," Rhyan offers, a goofy smirk on his face, "and yet my mom has always been there. Even when I was totally wrong, she stood by me. That mess in Sydney – well it really kinda hurt her."

"Coming from where we do," Joshua adds, "the one thing you try not to do, is... well... give Mom reasons to be disappointed."

Stella actually has to work to keep a straight face and, I think, to keep from crying.

"Anyhow, my mom recorded what you said to the press the next morning. She showed it to me, and was crying the whole time."

"You didn't have to go do that, Ms Yamada," Martin adds, "you could have stepped back and let us fend for ourselves – it was after all, our disaster."

"Anyhow," Rhyan finishes, "although it took a while, we do honestly get it."

"Okay guys," I say, trying to lighten the moment, "if you learned from the experience, it's all good. And on the plane, you can tell the girls we said so, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," they reply in unison.

Stella, who did lose a few tears, wipes them off, and with a devious sneer, asks, "So, are we going to totally destroy Staples…?"

The looks in their eyes is enough of an answer for me.

An hour later, as the plane leaves the ground, I find myself wondering if Richard has a copy of that interview…


	16. Chapter 14

_**FOURTEEN**_

_Staples Center in Los Angeles. _

The one show we've _all_ been totally psyched about, since the tour started. It happens in thirty-six hours.

Having caught her covertly texting more than a few times during the last few weeks, just before the plane lands in LA, I finally call Mo out.

"So… what's he been saying?"

"He?"

"Don't be a pain, Mo. Spill it."

The instant smile that spreads over her face makes me laugh.

"So far, it's been hard just getting him to respond. While Stella and Melissa were there, he actually ignored me. The few times he has responded, he confirmed – in a roundabout fashion – what Stella told us. It's the touring that's eating at him for some reason."

"Kinda fishy, Mo. She's told him – and us – she'd quit in a second if he wants her to."

"Yeah… I know. And he knows it too. It has to be something else… something deeper."

"Remember what Stella said – about _performing_?"

"Yeah?"

"That's the answer Mo!" I reply, as the whole plan comes together in my head, in only seconds.

"Huh?"

"We need to…" I say out loud, as my brain is processing the idea, "get him into the show… into the VIP section… _right in front of the stage_…"

"What _are_ you talking about, Olivia?"

"Mo, think about it. The man has _never_ been to a live show. He always seems to have some reason he can't make it. Melissa… the studio… his mom's illness. We need to get him to _watch_ her… _to see what it is, his wife does_…"

_"omg,"_ she mutters, as she suddenly gets it. Even before I can say anything else, she pulls the phone out of the console between us, and dials.

"Leonard – it's me. No, just be quiet and listen. I reserved a room for you at the Marriott, around the corner from the arena. When I knock on that door tomorrow afternoon, you had damn well better be in it."

She hesitates, and I can tell she's listening.

"Bullshit, Leonard. You can fly to LA in an hour and a half. Just do it, understood? Okay. Bye."

"Well?"

"He didn't really say one way or the other, but I think he's gonna do it. I better get him a room, as soon as we land."

I start to say something, but stop the moment I see Stella headed for us. Once she reaches us, she drops into a seat opposite us, and does nothing more than stare at us. After a full thirty seconds of staring at each other, we bust out laughing.

"Yeah… I know you two are up to something, and I just don't care."

"Really?" Mo says, smiling and trying to look angelic.

"Yeah, really. You're my best friends – family even. I trust you… well… to an extent…"

Mo and I crack up.

"How you feeling?" I ask.

"Whatever Dr. Galley gave me, works. I haven't puked in over a week, and food actually tastes like it should."

"It's going to be kinda cool, being pregnant together."

"For a while…" she replies, matter-of-factly.

"Meaning?" Mo asks.

"I made a promise to Lenny… and if he calls me on it, I intend to make good on it."

Mo and I glance at each other, and decide not to press her.

"So… are the kids on track?" I ask, nodding at the six of them, sitting together at the back of the plane.

"Well yeah... for the most part. But I came up here to ask you a favor."

"Of course. Whacha need?"

"Misty is driving herself nuts trying to assemble some lyrics…"

"Oh how totally cool! Let's go look…" I reply, jumping up, and leaving them to talk.

I realize the situation is different, and maybe even difficult, for the two them. One loves the guy, and the other feels she owes him a debt.

But, between the two of them, I know they'll figure it out.

Isn't friendship just a totally awesome thing?


	17. Chapter 15

_**FIFTEEN**_

I knock on the door, and wait – hoping with everything I am, he's in there. My heart skips a beat, and finally slows down, the moment the door opens.

"Hey."

"Hey, Mo," Leonard says, holding the door open for me.

"Man… I was freaking out, thinking I was going to have to go to Tahoe and kick your butt…"

I hear him laugh, which is a good sign. I climb onto one of the queen-sized beds, pull my feet up under me, and wait for Leonard to start talking.

"I'm so damn confused, Mo… I swear."

"She loves you… with every ounce of her being, Lenny. You must know that."

"Of course I do," he replies, taking a seat in a chair. "But I also know she loves _performing_ just as much…"

"And that's a problem because?"

He takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly, then turns and looks at me.

"I just feel so damn inadequate, Mo. It's like I don't really have a purpose…"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Come on… I know you see it. Everyone sees it…" he replies, looking more depressed than anyone I've ever seen. "We never started 'our' life – I simply moved into hers."

"That's the dumbest thing you've ever said to me, Leonard Faintree."

"If I was gone tomorrow, Stella would be just fine – and you know it, Mo."

_"Bullshit._ Guess this proves you aren't as damn smart as I've always given you credit for being."

Now a good bit irritated, I slide off the bed, stand up, and walk over to him. I reach into my back pocket, and pull out the envelope in it.

"Here," I hand the envelope to him. "If you care in the least about your wife, your family, and your life, your sorry butt will in that seat when the show starts tonight – _no excuses_."

I watch as he opens the envelope, and dumps the contents on the table next to him. He picks up the VIP ticket, then the all-access badge on a lanyard. Even without seeing his face, I know he's struggling.

"Look at me Leonard."

After a few seconds, he finally does.

"Tell me right now, that you'll be there. Tell me that the faith I've had in you since the day we met, hasn't been misplace. Tell me that when Terri comes for you, you'll be ready…"

He still hesitates, his face showing the emotional struggle going on inside him.

"Stella told me and Olivia that, more than anything, she hopes you'll take the chance she's offering. You, Leonard Faintree, have to decide to give _yourself_ a chance…"

I lean over and gently kiss him on the head, then turn and head for the door. As I'm reaching for the handle, I add, "She has no idea I've done this… just so you know."

As I pull the door open, I hear him call my name.

"Mo…"

When I turn to look at him, he's smiling.

"I'll be there… promise. And do me a favor?"

"Of course..."

"Tell Olivia... well... that I'm sorry."

I smile, and disappear out the door.

Just as Olivia said, I'm convinced all we have to do, is get him to actually _watch_ his wife do what it is, she's so amazingly good at…


	18. Chapter 16

_**SIXTEEN**_

Outside the hotel, I make a left and head back toward the Ritz-Carlton – which is where Richard insisted we stay. Just up the block from the hotel, I find a Starbucks, and decide that a latte can't be a bad thing.

I go in, get my coffee, and as I turn to leave, walk right into a tall, dark, handsome stranger. Well… he is for a split second anyhow…

"I'm sorry sir!" I say, then lift my head and look at him. _"Oh my God! Scott?"_

Yeah, I damn near faint. I haven't actually seen or spoken to him in over four years. Although he was my 'first love', after I went back to England, he sort of faded from my thoughts. The fact that the members of Mudslide Crush went their own ways after they graduated made that part of my past, even more obscure in my mind.

"Mohini Banjaree…" he says, grinning at me.

The moment he says my name, about half the heads in the place, turn and look at us. All I can do is stand there in a daze, staring at him. Finally, he laughs, and steers me to a chair on the far side of the shop. As I'm sitting down, one of the baristas, and two other girls come rushing up to the table.

"Ma'am… we don't mean to be rude…"

I laugh, glance at Scott, who's grinning like he's done something illegal, then turn to the girls.

"Nothing rude about it ladies. Without you guys – _the fans _– I'd be out of business…"

They each produce copies of _Begin Again_, and as I diligently sign each of them, it isn't hard to tell that my presence is about freaking them out – something I will never get used to.

"So… you guys going to the show?"

"No ma'am," the shortest one says, "they both sold out so fast, we couldn't get tickets. We were going to hang out by the hotel to see if we could get one of you to do this…" she points to indicate the autographs.

"Seriously? You each bought the CD, and even though you couldn't get tickets, you were going to hang out, just on the chance one of us would go by?"

"Yes ma'am," the third one – who looks a lot like the barista – says, as she takes her CD, and carefully examines the signature.

"Well now, that's a bunch of crap," I reply, making the three of them instantly look at me. With a big grin on my face, I open my purse and pull out three 'Get Into Jail Free' cards. They're one of Richard's cooler ideas. He had them printed – with the _Begin Again_ and _High Speed Rush_ album art on them – just for this instance, and gave each band member ten, for each show on the tour. If we find someone we think needs to be at a show – with the stroke of a pen, they are. After I sign them, I flip them over and slide one in front of each girl. Then I grab a napkin, and slide it over as well, laying my pen on top of it.

Write your full names on that," I say, pointing at the napkin. "You all have ID, right?"

"Yes ma'am," they each reply.

Once they're done, I smile and say, "You just got all-access to tonight's show. Go to the Will-Call window at the arena before the show starts – say around 7:00 pm, and show them these cards. After you show them some ID, they'll call a guy named Stephen, and he'll get you inside. I'm going to give him this," I reach out and pick up the napkin, "so only the three of you can use those cards. If you want to meet the rest of the band, let him know and he'll find me. Once the show starts, someone will get you into the VIP section up front. Sound cool?"

The cute little blonde barista, suddenly bursts into tears.

"Awww… come on, you're supposed to be jazzed, not crying."

"She is, Miss Banjaree," the girl who's probably the younger sister says, "she just gets over emotional sometimes."

"You guys are what making music is about for us. Heck, you each _bought_ our CD… instead of copying it. You guys keep us in business, so whenever I can, I pass it on! Come see us, and when it's over, tell everyone you know…"

The barista, still not having said anything, and still crying, steps over and hugs me. It actually makes me giggle. Once they walk off, I turn back to Scott.

_"That_, Mohini, is why _Lemonade Mouth_ will never be forgotten."

He makes me blush…

"What the heck are you doing here?"

"Hummm… to lie or not to lie…" he replies, grinning at me.

"Oh yeah… right… like you think for a second, I'm going to buy you being here for the show."

"Hey! I've always been a LM fan! I heard _Begin Again_ for the first time, on the radio, and I actually had to pull over…"

I look at him quizzically, and say, "Huh?"

"Although it was a lot about the lyrics, it was more about the passion the five of you put into recording it. It made me cry, Mo…"

He has a strangely emotional look in his eyes that reaches all the way in, and touches me.

"You guys just keep getting better… I swear. Each time the world thinks you're done, you come back, and body- slam us."

As sit listening to him, my brain freaks out, and within seconds, fate and destiny have rushed in and taken over.

"So… how come _you guys_ gave up?"

"It was time. We each found things we are exceptionally good at, and decided to pursue them."

"But… you guys were good at music…"

"No, Mo, we were _okay_ at music, and more importantly, we had fun with it. I'm a _good_ guitarist, and I love playing – but that's all I'll ever be. You and Stella are _really good_ guitarists… but beyond that, you're amazing _musicians_ as well. That's the difference. We could never get to the point that it was _all about the music_. We tried, but there was always something else in one of our lives, preventing us from getting there."

I guess my face shows my disappointment, as I sit listening to him.

"Mo, we're all cool with it. Heck, we just played a party for one of Ray's clients a couple weeks back – just because they asked. We haven't quit, it's just become a hobby, instead of a job."

"I see… and what does Ray do?"

"He and his partner have a graphic arts business – in Santa Fe. They've grown so fast, he has five employees working for him."

"Wow…" I mumble.

"Yeah, turns out the loud obnoxious jock we all knew and loved, is an amazing artist. You should see some of his stuff."

"Raul?"

"He works for an elite customizing shop in Phoenix. Turns out the guy's even better with sheet metal, than he is with a bass guitar. Their shop has built cars for the Hanson brothers, two of the Jonas brothers, and even restored one of Jay Leno's cars. The owners were so compelled to keep him, they let him buy into the business."

"Wow…" I again mumble, kind of at a loss. "Seems the world just kept going…"

"It always does. And as most of the world has seen, so has Mohini… and her friends."

Yeah, I blush – again.

"So… Scott Pickett. What does he do?"

He laughs.

"Oh… that guy. He has so much schooling, and so much paper on the wall of his office, people think he can launch the space shuttle."

"They cancelled that program. What does he really do?"

"He's a Computer Systems Engineer."

"Damn… and you wanted to pick on Ray for being a 'converted jock'?"

Again he laughs, and it dawns one me that the whole situation is totally comfortable. The people watching us would have no idea we haven't spoken to each other in four years.

"Okay… okay… so I'm kinda smart. Gimme a break," he replies, reaching out, and gently touching my hand.

The moment he does, my whole body shudders, and I think he feels it, because he quickly pulls his hand back. This is where Olivia's fate and destiny bust into my life – again. Although I'm concentrating on his eyes, and have no actual recollection of doing it, as quickly as he pulls his hand back, mine is on top of it.

"Hey… nothing wrong with 'smart'. Cute and buff are easy – you've done both. But if you can squeeze in smart too… jezzzz."

He blushes, squeezes my hand, and smiles at me. We sit talking for two hours – I even miss rehearsal, and am not even slightly concerned about it. When I finally stand up, to excuse myself, I have a revelation. Something I said to Wendell, years ago, rushes right back into my mind…

_"I'm holding out for my Lenny-Stella moment…"_

…and totally spontaneously, I break up laughing.

"What are you doing for the next twelve hours?"

"Nothing. I have an appointment on Monday, and tomorrow I'll spend the morning scouting a job site while the employees are gone. Why?"

"I need a date. Come on…"

I drop a tip on the table, wave at the barista, grab Scott by the hand, and go out the door. I flag down the first cab I see, and tell him we need to go to Staples Center. Scott never says a word the whole ride, but I do notice he never lets go of my hand.

Twenty minutes later we walk into the Green Room, and the looks on my band mates faces, are priceless.


	19. Chapter 17

_**SEVENTEEN**_

So… our first night at Staples.

During _Ransom's_ opening set, we immediately realize it's the loudest crowd of the tour, so far.

The six of them decided after the second night in O2, that because of how fired up it always gets the crowd, they would play _High Speed Rush_ as their last song. We know they're doing it to give us an over-amped crowd.

When we take the stage for our set, at least half the crowd is still chanting _'Ran-som – Ran-som'_ over and over. I laugh, and look at Wen, who shrugs, and looks at Stella. And of course, Stella takes action – because _that's_ what she does. She grabs a mic from the nearest stand, waves at the techs to ensure it's powered, and turns to the audience.

_"Hey Misty! I think your fans want an encore!"_

I swear, I almost die laughing – mostly because Stella is the only one crazy enough to do, what we all realize she's about to. You see… opening acts don't usually do encores. But for the first time on this tour, after the five of us join Stella in egging them on, we get _Ransom_ to come back. And I'm here to tell you, the crowd eats it up!

They're so stunned by the request, they're not even sure what to do. Once Stephen, the backstage techs, and a full-on laughing Richard, manage to get them calmed down, and back on stage, much to our astonishment they ask if they can play one of _our_ songs. The crowd is not only totally over-amped, but is soaking up the interaction between the bands, like a giant sponge.

Misty, all teary-eyed, walks up to me with an open mic, and asks, "Can we play Mo's song?"

"Which one?" I reply, as the now quiet crowd listens.

"_She's So Gone,_"she says, smiling_._

I shrug and look at Mo, who turns on her mic and pretty much yells, _"Oh hell yes you can!"_ which immediately causes yet another massive eruption of cheering.

Their cover of the song is of course, amazing. As they're leaving the stage, Joshua stops at a mic and says, _"How freakin' awesome are these guys?" _which again spins the crowd – damn near into the ceiling.

Then, _Lemonade Mouth_ spends the next seventy-five minutes, doing what we do best.

_Touching people…_

We play all our hits, and of course, when we play _Determinate_ the whole place goes right off the high end of the 'amped' scale – more so when the crowd sees Melissa and Bailey onstage, doing 'the slide' with Mo. It's yet another totally insane and amazing night, in the life of _Lemonade Mouth_.

I'm standing at the front of the stage, when the lights go down, and my three very best friends get ready to play _Destined to Be_. I put a finger to my lips, and with the mic on, whisper _"ssshhhhhh"_ as the arena goes dark.

Then, just as they've done at every venue so far, the fans go quiet, and quickly light the entire building with glowing green light sticks. Within seconds, there are _thousands_ of them moving ever so slowly, side to side.

Having covertly made my way into the VIP section to watch from the fan's perspective, I find Scott, sitting next to three young girls – who _might _be eighteen, but I kinda doubt it. I lean over, hug him, and he smiles and whispers, "Friends of Mo's" as he points at the girls. I laugh, introduce myself, and give them each a hug as well. When the one who looks to be the oldest, suddenly bursts into tears, I look at Scott, and he just starts laughing.

The moment I stand up again, I see Leonard, three seats away, at the end of the row. I quickly step around Scott, over the feet of a thirty-something couple sitting next to him, and drop into the empty seat next to Leonard. It only takes a few seconds for the girl next to me, to figure out who I am. I smile, shake her hand, and tell her I really need to talk to Leonard.

"Five damn years, Olivia… five years, and I had absolutely no idea… no understanding…" he blurts out, through what I realize are rapidly falling tears. "How could I have been so stupid?"

I don't say a word – and in reality, I really don't need to. As usual, Stella has spoken for herself… well… for _all of us_ actually. As I lean over, and kiss his cheek, the song ends, throwing the arena into an eerie green semi-darkness, as all the light sticks stop moving.

And of course, there is the silence that always follows the song – something that will probably always weird me out…

When I straighten up, I realize there is in fact, one thing you _can_ clearly hear… _crying._

When the techs bring the lights up again, 17,000 people are on their feet, screaming, whistling, stomping and applauding. I look up just in time to see Melissa and Bailey go tearing across the stage, and jump into their parent's arms – both of whom are laughing, and bowing to the crowd.

Once the applause dies down, Stella – with Melissa still in her arms – goes to the mic and says, _"Hey! Has anyone seen our lead singer?"_

This is where the cat finally gets out of the bag. As soon as Stella asks the question, the guy on the sound board, in the middle of the VIP section, tells them where I am. The instant the spotlight hits me, Stella sees Leonard, and the woman simply bursts into tears. The funny part is, Melissa sees him too, and yells _'DADDY'_ at the top of her lungs… into Stella's open mic.

Once again, the crowd goes nuts. Melissa wiggles free of her very stunned mother, and before anyone can catch her, rushes to the edge of the stage. Fortunately, a couple of very astute security guys realize what she's going to do, and they catch her as she tries to scramble over the edge of the stage. Leonard jumps up, runs to the barricade at the front of the VIP section, and tells the guy standing there, "She's my daughter!" He in turn laughs, goes over and gets the wiggling, squirming, squealing, ball of energy that is Melissa Faintree. The moment he hands her to Leonard, they get a massive round of applause. I look at him just in time to see him tap his heart, and point at his wife, who is now standing at the edge of the stage. After a second, she tries to recover.

"Thank God for huge security guys, huh people?" she blurts out. Then she kneels down, shakes each guy's hand and thanks them. While she's doing that, Mo's voice suddenly fills the arena.

"If you'd like to join us, Olivia, we can finish the show…"

With some help, I climb over the barricade, and the two huge guys, who caught Melissa, pretty much pick me up, and put me back on the stage, and I'm laughing the entire time. As my feet hit the stage, I hear my husband's voice echo through the entire arena.

"_Man! I am sooo telling Richard…"_

Although they have no idea what it means, the crowd again breaks into applause.

Twenty minutes later, we play _Begin Again_. We send Stephen to get Melissa – who refuses to go without her dad – so she and Bailey can sit onstage with us. Just as we've done at each show, Georgia puts them in identical dresses, stuffs their little ears with cotton to protect them, and I have them sitting beside me, on the floor, center stage, holding our Grammys. At the end of the song, they help me with the last chorus – and the crowd totally loves it…

As has become standard for the tour, we play _Journeys End_ for the encore, and then tell the crowd goodnight.

It is by far, the best damn show we've _ever_ done… _period_.


	20. Chapter 18

_**EIGHTEEN**_

Leonard is waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and Mo nudges me the moment she see him.

"Yeah, Mo," I reply, "We pulled this one off pretty cleanly, didn't we?" I wink at Leonard as I pass him.

"I heard that, Olivia!" we hear from behind us.

I laugh, walk over and wrap my arms around my husband. After a second, he lifts my chin and kisses me. Seconds later, _everyone_ backstage hears Richard…

_"DAMNIT, OLIVIA!"_

…and _everyone_ within ear shot breaks out in laughter…

_"What the hell is wrong with the stairs?"_ he asks, stopping next to me.

"I promise not to do it again…" I reply.

After a few seconds, he too laughs, and then hugs each of us.

"How, exactly, do you guys expect to top this?"

"No idea, Richard," Stella says, as Melissa is gently tugging on her pant leg. "But you can bet we're going to try!"

Her comment is follow by some cheering and high-fiving from the crew. Once it dies down, I jab her in the side, and nod in the direction of our opening act – standing quietly next to a stack of equipment cases.

She looks at me – that devious 'what's she going to do now' look, which makes me laugh. She turns and heads for them, and I follow. When they see us coming, Joshua and Misty smile… and then Stella goes Stella on them.

She runs the last twenty feet, and actually _jumps_ into poor Joshua's arms, pretty much forcing him to catch her. When everyone again starts laughing – Leonard included – Stella plants one on the kid, and makes him turn six shades of red. The very first comment is from Melissa…

_"Mommy!"_

Which Vanessa quickly follows with…

_"O… M… G…_"

And finally, the ever quiet Ariel expresses herself…

_"NO SHIT!"_ escapes her lips, and then she instantly blushes, when she remembers the kids are here.

After a second, Joshua lets Stella slide to the ground, and she takes turns hugging each of the band members. I too, take the time to not only hug them, but to thank them.

"_You guys sooo totally rocked!_" Stella says, and is immediately backed up by everyone else. "We have six more shows, and by God, I expect the _exact same performance_ at every one of them. Understood?"

_"Yes ma'am!"_ the six of them say simultaneously.

Then, for the second time, Ariel speaks up.

"Uh… excuse me…"

"Yes, Ariel?" I step around Stella, and look right at her.

"I'm pretty sure we only have five shows left… well, with you guys I mean."

I laugh, fully aware she's working me…

"You guys aren't playing the last show with us?" I ask, quickly turning and looking at Richard, who of course, is clueless.

"We thought…" comes from Martin.

"Thought what?" Mo interjects, now grinning herself.

"Well… it seemed reasonable to think you guys would do that show on your own… with your fans..." Vanessa offers.

The six of them are pretty much dumbfounded – and it shows on their faces.

_"Man!"_ Wen says, trying his very best not to laugh, "you guys are kinda dense!"

"Apparently," Charlie adds, giving in to his laughter, "you guys haven't noticed that your fans, and our fans, are one and the same…"

Poor Ariel is going to lose it. Slowly but surely, the tears start trickling down her cheeks. Martin, now grinning, steps over and puts an arm around her shoulders.

"Why?" she mutters, "why are you guys doing all this?"

"Because, you need to understand one very important thing, if you intend to make this a career," Stella says, fighting back her own emotions, "and we intend to make sure you do."

_"It is…"_ Wendell says, stepping up next to me, and putting his arm around me.

_"And always has to be…" _Charlie adds, as he steps up on my other side, and puts the arm his daughter isn't in, around me.

_"All about the music…"_ I finish, with a smile, as Stella turns and joins us, putting her arm around Charlie.

"Besides," Mo adds, stepping to the end of the line, and putting her arm around Wendell, _"We are, and always will be – no matter what paths we travel, or what complications life throws at us – Lemonade Mouth…"_

Our reset crew – close to fifty of them – breaks into applause.

I think we even get to Richard…


	21. Chapter 19

_**NINETEEN**_

After Richard herds everyone off to the Green Room, I walk over to my husband and daughter. After we stare at each other for a moment, I take Leonard's hand, and lead him into the tunnel behind the stage, where we sit on some equipment cases stacked there. Melissa climbs down out of her father's lap, and starts exploring, under both our watchful eyes.

"Stella…"

I reach up and put a finger on his lips.

"Me first. There's something you need to know, before you say anything. I've been totally unfair in not telling you sooner, and that alone might be unforgiveable…"

"You're pregnant…"

Yes, I do in fact, damn near faint…

"But… how…"

"Stel… who lived with you through the first one?" he says, smiling, and nodding at Melissa.

He hesitates for a second and gives me a chance to absorb what's happening, and then continues.

"The day I met you, I honest-to-God, fell in love. The thing is, it was with what my mind had already made you up to be. And for the last six years, I've been telling myself that's what I want – the girl I fell in love with."

I feel the tears coming, but am totally unsure of where he's going.

"Change your mind, did you?" I ask, between sniffles.

He turns, and seeing Melissa on top of one of the cases, he calls her back.

"Come back over here, young lady," he says, in his awesome 'daddy' voice – the one I fell in love with first time I heard it.

"Yes I did," he replies to my question, as our daughter runs back to him.

When he turns and looks at me again, I reach up, and put a hand on his cheek.

"It's okay Lenny… honest. Do what you need to… and we will be here should you need us."

Even as the sobbing begins, the man laughs at me.

"You are still a nutcase, Stella Yamada…"

I immediately try to remember the last time he called me that – and can't. Totally certain I am about to get my heart broken, I wipe my cheeks, lean in, and gently kiss him.

"I love you with every ounce of me, Leonard… and I always will."

Suddenly, his little 'light bulb' goes on…

"Stella, what in God's name do you think is happening here?"

When I don't respond – well, with anything other than tears, he again laughs.

"My God! You think I'm leaving!"

"Where you going, Daddy?" Melissa blurts out.

"Leonard… I don't want you to stay, feeling trapped or controlled. I will never be able to forgive myself for imposing something like that on you…"

When his face goes flush, and he begins getting teary-eyed, I get totally confused.

"Daddy isn't going anywhere baby… _ever_," he says to Melissa, as he again picks her up.

When he looks back at me, I can see in his eyes, I've somehow hurt him.

"What Leonard… what did I do? Talk to me… please."

He takes a deep breath, lets it out, and starts talking.

"I can't believe you truly thought I was going to cut and run, Stella. I honestly thought you knew me better than that. Sure we have problems, but then everyone does. You don't run from them, you resolve them. That's what a family does."

"But… back at the house, before I left… you were…"

_"Stressed_ Stella, unbelievably and massively stressed. And yeah, there are some reasons – but we'll talk about that later. Right now, _you_ need to crawl out from under all the stress pressing down on you… and go back to being the lead guitarist for the world best pop band."

I'm totally confused, and full on sobbing, as Melissa crawls over to me, gets in my lap, and asks, "Are you mad at Daddy?"

"Oh no… not even close, sweetheart. Just like he's done since the day I met him, Daddy is just getting Mommy straight."

"Oh…" she says, matter-of-factly, as if she understands what's going on, and in a moment of serious tension, makes her parents laugh.

Leonard and I are staring at each other, when our daughter once again breaks the silence.

"Daddy says I'm getting a little brother…"

Yeah, she gets me… big time.

"Oh did he now?" I reply, looking at my husband.

"No he didn't. He said he _hopes_ you get a little brother."

"That's the same thing, Daddy," she blurts out, again making us laugh.

"And how does Missy feel about a little brother?"

"Bailey has a little sister…"

"Yes she does…" I reply.

"Stella, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being such a huge dweeb all this time. I simply had no idea. I spent months looking at you on TV, staring at you in posters and album art, but I always saw _your image _– I never saw _you_. Even after I met you, I was still seeing her – the girl in my imagination."

He takes another breath, and continues.

"Tonight, for the first time since I've known her, _I actually saw Stella Yamada_ – artist and musician. I've wasted five years, trying to hold on to what I thought you were… when I should have been falling in love with _who you actually are_…"

Now, there are tears running down his cheeks.

"Mo said you were ready to give me a chance. If that's still true, I want it. I want the chance to know, and to fall in love with, the woman who was on that stage tonight… the totally crazy, rock-star, lead guitarist. _She_ is actually the mother of my kids, and my wife…"

He leans over and kisses me… really kisses me. It's one of those toe-curling, heart stopping, brain popping, kisses. _The kind only your soul mate can give you_.

"Well… I do have one question."

"And that is?"

"Do you remember our discussion, the first time you held Melissa, at the hospital?

The big grin that instantly covers his face, tells me he does.

"Stella… what about…"

"It's just _stuff_, Leonard. We can always get more _stuff_. I made a promise, and it's totally up to you if I make good on it, or not."

"You will drop everything, and move to England, just because of promise?"

"Do you want to?"

"Damn… I'm going to have to give it some thought. How long do I have?"

"Six… six and a half months," I reply, smiling.

He reaches out and gently rubs his hand against Melissa's cheek, and as usual, she leans into it. She is one little girl who loves her father, unconditionally.

"You staying for the rest of the tour, or are there some pressing things at home?"

"Ehhh… I shut it down. Ricky – one of the engineers at the label – bailed me out, and hooked up the two clients I cancelled."

"Good thing I have a suite, huh?"

Leonard stands up, I let Melissa slide to the floor, and as I take her little hand, Leonard takes mine.

"Hey Missy! You wanna go find Bailey?"

_"Yeeeeaaaah!"_ she screams and tears off down the tunnel, toward the Green Room.

Seems fate and destiny, are once again, hard at work…


	22. Chapter 20

_**TWENTY**_

During our second show at Staples, it's Charlie's turn.

_Ransom_ is six songs into their nine-song set, and are about to play one of their really fast songs, when out of nowhere, Charlie crosses the stage – in front of everyone – and walks up to Rhyan, twirling a drumstick. When Rhyan holds up his hands as if the ask _'what?'_, everyone on or near the stage, and in the VIP section as well, hears Charlie say, "I need to borrow your drums dude." The entire band – Rhyan included – crack up laughing, and Rhyan of course, jumps up and gives Charlie the stool.

Then, after spending eight weeks together on the road, one of them, gets a shot in at one of us…

"Uh… Mr. Delgado," Misty says, a really devious grin on her cute little freckled face, as she glances at the rest of us standing offstage, "this song is pretty fast… you sure you can keep up?"

The entire arena goes completely insane – and the 'amped' meter simply explodes. In one single sentence, Misty Maitland, the once timid, bubble-gum chewing, lead singer of _Ransom_, has just perfected the art of 'working the crowd'. Even her band mates – who a month earlier, would have freaked out, and panicked, at her comment – are all laughing and whooping. Charlie Delgado, master drummer, and all around awesome guy, almost falls off the stool, as he gets to his feet, and in front of 17,000 fans, gives Misty the 'we are not worthy' bow. When she again looks at us, you can tell she's having fun with it, but it's also apparent it's taking all her willpower not to freak out.

_'At least'_, I think to myself, smiling, _'they're beginning to catch on…'_

Once they get reorganized, the six of them go to work, and the results are again, amazing. Their reactions to each other are so intuitive, one would think Charlie was part of _their_ band!

Then, it's Charlie's turn to be freaked out. He turns the drums back over to Rhyan, and as he crosses the stage, bowing to the crowd and putting his hand over his heart as he does, he sees Victoria – who Terri brought backstage only seconds earlier – standing with us, behind the amp stacks. Then, as if that's not enough, _the entire arena_ hears Bailey's voice as she screams _"my daddy rocks!"_ into someone's open mike, then rushes across the stage and jumps into his arms.

This time, there's no screaming or stomping, just some mellow whistling and a lot of applause, as the crowd shows respect for one little girls love of her father. Charlie is in tears when he reaches us.

As he and his family disappear into the darkness back stage, I see Ariel getting high-fived by Martin, Joshua, and Vanessa, as she slips her mic back into its stand. Guess we know whose open mic Bailey was holding. As she puts her guitar back over her shoulders, the very first thing you see, are the tears running down her cheeks.

The kids finish their set, and just like the previous night, we bring them back for an encore. They once again play 'Mo's song' and it's just as amazing as the first time they did it.

Then, it's our turn. And of course I know exactly how to extract some retribution for Charlie.

_Destined To Be _has been number seven on the set list, since the tour started. Tonight, when we reach it, while the lights are down and the stage crew is helping Charlie, Mo and Stella set up, I walk over to Mo, and tap her on the shoulder.

"You and Wen want to join us tonight, Olivia?" she asks, adjusting her Taylor acoustic bass, and moving her stool a bit.

"Nope, but I do want to ask a favor…"

When she looks at me quizzically, I step over and whisper in her ear. The moment I stop talking and lean back, she wraps her arms around me, and says, _"What a totally cool idea!"_ The moment they hear Mo, Stella and Charlie come over.

"So share," Stella says.

I lean in and whisper to them as well, and instantly they both laugh, and hug me. Then, with a very sinister grin, Charlie says, "I _love_ retribution…"

Two minutes later the lights go down, and in the soft green semi-darkness, the crowd hears Mo and Stella start the song. At the same time, I'm walking up to an unsuspecting Misty, who's at the bottom of the stage stairs, talking to Vanessa. I stop, tap her on the shoulder, and hand her a powered mic, which she takes. When she looks at me, totally confused, I say, "You're going to need that…" loud enough that the mic picks it up, and sends it echoing through the arena. The moment she hears it, she glances at the mic, and pretty much panics.

"_Misssssssty!_ Come sing for us…" Mo's amplified voice says, as it too, resonates through the eerily quiet building.

"…right about now." I finish, smiling at her.

The girl bursts into tears, and actually starts shaking. Wendell takes her hand, pulls up the stairs, and points her at center stage, as her band mates, all totally zoned, stand speechless, and watch. Terri – being the awesome engineer she is – quickly adapts, and puts a single spotlight on her. Realizing she's kind of trapped, Misty makes herself cross the stage, as the stunned and silent audience watches. She reaches Mo and Stella, who are this time, cross-legged on the floor, instead of on their stools, and simply stops.

After a few seconds, both of them still strumming away, Mo giggles, and Stella points at the floor between them, and says, "Sit right there," which the audience of course, hears. Misty quickly complies. After a few more seconds of silence, never having missed a chord, Mo adds, "You know the lyrics, Misty. Olivia has heard you sing the song."

Again, poor Misty, who is kneeling at an angle to Mo and Stella, with her back partially to the audience, can't seem to say anything. When Charlie, who's sitting at his drums behind the three of them, laughs, it sort of brings Misty out of her daze. At the same time, a bunch of voices in the crowd are heard yelling "_you can do it!_" and _"go for it!"_

When Stella smiles, points out into the darkness of the arena, and says, "The audience is that way," Misty takes a huge breath, wipes her cheeks, and when Charlie joins in, she turns to the crowd and gives the most powerful performance of her short career. Watching her makes me flash back to a small community music hall in Churchtown, England, as I remember the night that I too, sang someone else's song…

The bizarrely amazing thing about it is, when the song is over, the crowd's reaction is _exactly_ the same as it was the night before – just as if Mo was singing.

Tears again streaming down her cheeks, and shaking like a leaf in a high breeze, the cute, soft-spoken, freckled-faced redhead, from Ransom, Kansas, who always seems to have her hair in pigtails, actually gets _a full standing ovation from 17,000 people_.

Like I've said before _– another totally insane and amazing night, in the life of Lemonade Mouth._


	23. Chapter 21

_**TWENTY-ONE**_

We do two shows in Toronto, although the second one doesn't sell out. It comes up about 1800 tickets short. But no one will ever know that – except Richard, and the Director of the Air Canada Center. You see, Richard, wanting to be certain the Secret Show happens, went to the label's president, and Mr. Rosen went to Air Canada, and between the two organizations they bought out the remaining seats, and had a number of radio stations give them away. When we heard what they did, _both_ bands made a personal visit to Mr. Rosen, the night of the second show. When we found out his granddaughter and three of her friends would be in the VIP section, I took appropriate action. I dialed Terri's cell…

"Hey… I need a massive favor."

"Say the word, Olivia!"

"Just before the show starts, I need you, or Stephen, to personally go and collect a young lady named Patricia Rosen and her three friends from the VIP section, and bring them to the Green Room."

"I will take care of it… personally," she instantly replies.

"Thanks! See you in a bit."

Mr. Rosen, sitting on the edge of his desk, just smiles at me.

"We'll entertain them while these guys," I point at _Ransom_, "are playing, and they take over when we go on stage."

"Well, it's safe to say they will be in excellent hands, all evening," he replies.

We turn and head for the door, and being the last in line, I'm about to close the door, when Mr. Rosen calls to me.

"Mrs. Gifford…"

I stop, and turn back to face him.

"I've never been big on musicians or 'rock bands', but what they say about the five of you, is apparently, quite true…"

"Sir?"

"For your band, it does truly seem to be about the music… and your fans. Have a good show."

I smile, nod, and go to join my friends, who are loitering in the vicinity of the elevator, waiting for me.

"Well?" Wen asks.

"What did he say," Mo blurts out, making everyone laugh.

"In his own weird little head-honcho way, I think he said we rock…"

When the elevator door opens on the first floor and eleven squirrely, laughing musicians exit, everyone in the lobby turns to look. Halfway across the lobby, Misty, Vanessa, and Ariel, completely out of nowhere, start singing the Spice Girls song _Wannabe_ in perfect harmony, and in moments, everyone in the lobby – include us – is clapping along. The girls sing us out the door, across the parking lot, and into the service entrance of the arena. It's totally amazing and comical.

"Hey!" Stella, who's laughing harder than anyone, says, "How the heck do you guys know that song? You musta been like three years old when it came out."

"Yeah," Mo adds, "it's apparent you've sung before."

"Jezzz…" Rhyan interjects, rolling his eyes.

"We've played it more times that we want to admit," Joshua adds.

"They," Martin points at the girls, "made us learn it when we first started playing together."

"My mom used to walk around singing it when I was little, and it always stuck in my head," Ariel offers.

"Yeah," Vanessa adds, "and I used to hang out her house a lot."

"When I first started hanging out with them," Misty continues, "I caught them playing it, and we just sorta made it a 'girl thing'. Sometimes, we just go off…" she finishes with a big grin.

When all the guys laugh, we know something's up.

_"What?"_ I ask, glaring at Joshua.

"Senior year, they got banned from assemblies – for 'going off'," Martin says, trying his very best not to crack up.

"Huh?" Mo says.

Rhyan steps up, and with a grin, explains.

"They 'went off' at the Home Coming assembly. In like thirty seconds, they had over a hundred girls – from third graders to seniors – singing with them, right in the middle of the principle's pep-talk. Man was he pissed."

While everyone – including a bunch of the road crew who happened to be listening – breaks up laughing, I'm watching Stella. The girl is hatching a plot of some kind… it's all over her face.


	24. Chapter 22

_**TWENTY-TWO**_

We do two shows at MSG, and just like every other time we've played there, the crowd is amazing. And of course, the onstage antics between the bands, continues. On the second night, again without warning, Charlie stands up and walks off stage, without a word, leaving us totally confused. Seconds later, Bailey and Melissa appear, ready to do _Determinate_ with us, and right behind them, is a hysterically laughing Rhyan. The girls go right to Stella, and I stop Rhyan – with my mic on, of course.

"Where's our drummer?"

"He handed me his sticks," he holds them up, "mumbled something about the bathroom, and disappeared," he quickly replies.

I'm pretty sure _every single person_ in the building starts laughing.

"Well… it's on you then, Rhyan," Wen says, as the lights go down, and he starts the intro. "Take a seat dude…" The rest of us are again laughing, when, as an afterthought, Wendell adds, "…and you better not screw up."

Charlie is actually standing offstage with the members of _Ransom_, watching. Yes, we are quickly becoming 'family', and the tour has pretty much gone from 'their act' and 'our act', to 'the act'.

Every single one of us is having an amazing time, and the six members of _Ransom_, are quickly beginning to understand the meaning of _'all about the music'_.

Three hours after the show is over, unable to sleep, I wander from my hotel room, down to the restaurant, hoping I can talk someone out of some soda water for my stomach. When I walk in, the cook and a single waitress are talking near the kitchen door, and both approach me.

"Do you need something Mrs. Gifford?" the cook asks.

_"Olivia_, guys. And yeah, I need some soda water… plain soda water."

"Stomach, huh," the waitress asks.

"How'd you know?"

She laughs, and says, "Mrs. Faintree has the same problem." She points across the room at a table with Mo and Vicki at it, and adds, "She was here with them for about an hour."

"I have a feeling 'pregnant' isn't going to be as much fun as I had hoped," I reply, as the cook disappears into the kitchen.

"I can bring it over to you, if you want to join them," the woman says, definitely trying not to laugh.

When I get to the table, I find two women who are far too wound up for 2:00 in the morning.

"Are you guys still working on that," I ask, pointing at Mo's laptop.

_"She did it Olivia!_ She actually pulled it off!" Vicki blurts out.

I immediately get serious, as I know exactly what she's talking about.

"No way…"

"Uh-huh, way," Mo replies, spinning the laptop around so I can read the email filling the screen.

As I'm reading the waitress walks up and sets some unsalted crackers, and a glass of clear soda on the table. I look up at her, and with a frown, say, "You better bring me another glass… I'm going to need it." She laughs and walks off.

I'm reading a Confirmation of Contract with the scheduling office of the Red Rocks Amphitheater, and at the same time, am guzzling the carbonated water. Mo, with some help from Vicki, has actually booked us into what very well may be _the best_ outdoor venue in the world.

_"O…M…G…"_ I mumble, setting the empty glass down.

"We're gonna have to spill tomorrow, Olivia," Vicki says. "Richard and Stephen are ready to kill us."

"Wait a sec… they don't know about this?"

Mo gives me the most devious smile.

"You did all this… _on your own_…?"

"Well, Vicki help a good bit," Mo replies.

I lean over, hug her, and say, "You are an amazing woman, Mohini Banjaree, and more importantly, an amazing friend."

"Personally, I think the whole damn bunch of you, are amazing."

We turn and find the smiling waitress, a second glass of soda in her hand, standing next to us.

"You're a fan?" Mo asks.

"Fourteen years ago, I was center stage, on the floor, when five, insanely talented, high school kids opened for the first time at MSG. They totally wrecked the place that night, just like they did last night," she replies.

I look at Mo, and she too, is getting teary eyed.

"You were there last night?"

"Oh no… I haven't been to concert in years. I do have all your CDs though – compliments of my daughters. They went with a bunch of their friends, and three parents."

Before I can say a word, Mo is all over this one.

"You do realize that live music, is the best music, right?"

Vicki and I start laughing, because we know what Mo is about to do. When the waitress doesn't say anything, Mo quickly types something on her laptop, and hits print. The small portable printer next to Vicki jumps to life, and as soon as the single page slides out, she hands it to Mo.

"What's your name?"

"Miranda Hamilton – why?"

"Full name…"

"Miranda Lynn Hamilton. What's going on?"

"And the daughters?"

When she hesitates, and looks concerned, I offer some advice.

"Miranda, it's easier if you just tell her," I say, reaching out and taking the second glass of soda from her. "She's absurdly hardheaded, and impossible to live with, when she doesn't get her way…"

Vicki, and the cook – who is now standing behind Miranda – crack up.

"Molly Marie, and Sally Ann," she finally replies. "They're twins."

"Oh how totally cool!" I blurt out. "How old are they?"

"Twelve – in three weeks."

Mo's head comes up from what she's doing, and when we make eye contact, neither of us can believe it.

"I know I'm being nosey, but what day… exactly?"

"The eighth of August."

Mo cracks up the moment she says it, and turns to look right at me.

"You and your damn 'destiny' have totally outdone yourself this time, Olivia."

The she reaches out, and hands the sheet of paper she's been writing on, to Miranda.

"That…" she points at the sheet of paper, "has got to be the best damn birthday present any twelve year old girl has ever gotten."

Miranda reads it, then stops and looks at us.

"There's no way…"

"Oh yes there is," Vicki says, interrupting her. 'Even if we," she points at each of us, "have to pay for it."

"Yeah right," I blurt out. "The moment I tell Richard we found someone who was actually at our first show, he's going to flip. _Lemonade Mouth_ is picking up the tab on this one…"

The woman, now staring at the page in her hands, slowly sits down in a chair next to her.

"Miranda, with your permission, we want to make you the focal point of the tour's last show. We want to introduce you, and your girls, to show how music can actually bridge generations."

When she lifts her head again, she's smiling. The cook pokes her in the shoulder, and says, "If you say _anything_ other than _yes_, I am sooo going to kick your butt…"

In the restaurant of the Carlton Hotel in downtown New York, at two o'clock in the morning, I realized that we are about to top everything we've ever done as a band.

"If you guys are serious…" Miranda says, "I'm in."

After hesitating for a few seconds, with huge grin on her face, she adds, "And I still have the silly ticket stub…"


	25. Chapter 23

_**TWENTY-THREE**_

So… Wichita.

Total insanity from the moment we arrive – which because of Richard is a day early.

We do five interviews Wednesday, the first one within hours of arriving. In the afternoon, we do a couple of radio interviews, and later than night, we are invited to dinner at the mayor's house. How weird is that?

Thursday finds us on the set of the local morning show. Because the spot is time limited, we decide to let _Ransom_ play, instead of us. The hosts seem a bit disappointed… right up until Misty and the guys cut lose. By the end of the song, almost everyone in the studio is dancing and clapping.

After the show, it's almost lunch time, so we arbitrarily grab one of the stage hands and ask him where the nearest high school is. He tells us it's about twelve blocks away, and gives us directions. Wondering what we're going to do, a couple of other studio employees walk up and ask.

"We're going to lunch!" Stella blurts out, making Richard roll his eyes. Then, without warning, Stella yells, "HEY! Anyone got a van we can borrow?"

"Stella, there's a limo out front," Richard says.

"Can't sneak up on someone in a limo, Richard."

Within seconds, three people are standing in front of us, laughing and holding out keys.

"FYI," one woman says, as she hands her keys to Charlie, "The middle school is across the street…"

The very second Stella and Misty look at each other, I crack up – totally. Stella promises to personally return the vans, and thirty minutes later, we pull up behind the cafeteria at the high school, while _Ransom_ is already wandering in for lunch across the street at the middle school.

We split up, and the staff, once they get over the shock of us sneaking in the back, gives each of us trays, and we wander out, one at a time, to find tables. It takes about ten minutes, but eventually, someone recognizes Charlie. The resulting insanity is the high point of the tour! I think I run two new pens completely out of ink, signing things.

Eventually, we apologize to the principle for disrupting the day, and he tells us he finds it's amazing that the eleven of us would take the time to do something so personal, for our younger fans.

Thursday night, _Ransom_ hosts a party in the hotel's restaurant, for their family and friends. The place is full of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and whoever else they can find. And as crazy as it is, with the exception of six people, their _entire_ graduating classes – _both of them_ – show up, parents included. _Who knew?_ I suppose it's one of the benefits of being from 'small town America'.

It is in fact, so amazing, I actually get pretty emotional. When my husband gets concerned, and starts to dote, I tell him to hush, and go away. Mo, Stella and Vicki all crack up.

Friday night, we pull off yet another awesome performance. _Ransom_ does their best show of the tour so far. I suppose there's something be said for playing 'at home' – for family and friends. We tend to be the same way, every time we play the Pit, at UNM.

Saturday night's show… well… this one definitely goes into the 'absurdly cool' file. And of course, Stella is totally to blame…

"Okay guys," Stella whispers, as the six of us stand quietly between the equipment stacks. "You ready to do this?"

I'm here to tell you, there is _nothing _more epic than a bunch of girls, up to something – more so when it's in front of a live, unsuspecting audience.

"I can't believe we're actually going to do it," Ariel says, giggling.

"It's going to be totally amazing!" I blurt out, absurdly excited about the whole idea.

"What's Richard gonna say?" Vanessa asks.

"Do we care?" Mo replies.

"Ariel has the drums – which by the way, is completely amazing," Stella continues. "Olivia easily covers the keyboards. There isn't really any lead, so I've got rhythm, and Mo has bass. Everyone has a mic, and knows who's singing what. This is going to blow their minds… totally."

"Man…" Ariel mumbles, "I wonder if my mom is still out there."

"She most certainly is – all your moms are," Mo says.

"Yeah…" Stella adds, "as soon as you guys were done, Terri sent someone to make sure they didn't leave the VIP section."

"She is sooo going to freak out! Thanks guys…"

The moment Ariel stops talking, Terri appears around the corner, and with big smile, says, "Richard knows something's up, and may wet his pants at any moment. Let's freakin' do this girls!"

We go single file, out onto the dark stage, and plug things in. The crowd is milling around, waiting for the crew to get the stage ready, and isn't paying any attention – well… until Ariel does a run across Charlie's drum set. And yes, the girl can actually play them!

"_HEY!"_ Stella screams into a mic in front of her. _"YOU GUYS WANNA SEE HOW THE GIRLS DO IT?"_

Even though they still can't see us, and have no idea what's going on, the crowd goes completely nuts.

Misty is standing right at the very edge of the stage, and Vanessa is right next to her. The moment they start singing, the rest of us start jamming. When the lights come up – thanks to Terri's devious little self – the six of us bring the house down, with an amazing, and brain-numbingly loud, cover of _Wannabe_ – just because we can.

By the second chorus, we have what is probably _every_ female in the building, singing along with us. When I glance backstage, I see Richard shaking his head, and laughing. And right next to him, are the five most awesome guys I know, clapping, whistling, and cheering us on.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Wichita is going to remember when the girls of _Lemonade Mouth_ and _Ransom_, stopped by one Saturday night in July…


	26. Chapter 24

_**TWENTY-FOUR**_

Red Rocks Amphitheater…

What can one say about it… that hasn't already been said?

Along with being one of – if not _the_ – most prestigious venues in the world, it's also amazingly beautiful. Most artists who've played here, say it's 'acoustically perfect', and affectionately refer to it as 'the eighth wonder of the world'.

Standing alone, center stage, my mind – and heart – race, as I think about the thousands who have stood here before me…

Everyone from Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, and Rush – to U2, Dave Matthews, Coldplay, and Phish. This small stage probably contains more music history, than any other single location in the world…

I climb – _carefully_ – off the front of the stage and take a seat, in the first row, on the bright red sandstone that makes up the amphitheater.

Between MSG and Wichita, Melanie, Richard's secretary, and Roxanne, the label's resident admin genius, manage to get all the names submitted on the website, together in some form of organization.

All 13,254 of them.

Although the amphitheater will technically hold almost 10,000, we decided this is going to be a very small show – with only 1500 fans present. It's about reaching out and touching the people who continue to keep us in business. We fully intend to interact with them, in a fashion we've never done before.

With a camera running, we let Melissa and Bailey pull names out a huge tumbler – until their little arms get tired. Then the band members take over. Eventually, Mo posts parts of the video on our website, so the fans can see that it was all random.

It takes just short of two hours to get 750 names, each of which gets two tickets. In order to beat the scalpers at their own game, the recipients are told that their names will be associated with each pair of numbered tickets, and that ID will be required to pick them up. This lets us weed out about a hundred people, who probably intended to resell the tickets. We go back and draw more names, until we again have 750. Then, based on a suggestion by the venue, we make all tickets 'will-call' and eliminate the possibility of counterfeiting. Can't copy it, if you don't know what it looks like…

After a full week of twelve hour days by Richard's staff, we finally have our attendees.

And of course, being the obnoxious brats we are, we wait until the very last moment – meaning in the letter that's overnighted to each person – to tell them it's all FREE. All they have to do is get themselves here.

Next – the 'give-aways'. Once Richard gives the idea the thumbs up, Scott steps up and calls Ray. Ray is so psyched about our idea that he offers to do it _at cost_! Richard laughs, and tells him that we fully expect him to make a profit, but will be eternally grateful if he doesn't take us to the cleaners.

Ray and his guys show up a day later, do their 'digital' thing, and create the most amazing t-shirts ever. _Begin Again_ on the front and _High Speed Rush_ on the back – with our bright smiling faces circling each cover image. Ray even takes our signatures digitally, and puts them under our photos.

Then he, Richard, Stephen and Terri, come up with one totally amazing idea. Once the label signs off on it, Ray spends hours personally creating a beautiful CD case with the title _Red Rocks Live_ – _Them and Us_ on the front insert, and an explanation of how the concert came to be on the back. We put one with each of the shirts for the attendees, knowing they will do exactly what we want them to. Create confusion.

You see, they're all _empty_ – with the exception of a postage paid postcard.

Totally lost in thought, I hear footsteps behind me, and turn to find Wendell coming down the aisle toward me. When he reaches the bottom, I stand up to meet him.

"I _really_ wish you'd quit sneaking off _alone_…"

"For crying out loud, I'm a big girl. Sometimes… I just need to think."

He smiles, reaches out, and puts his hand on my stomach – which in now big enough there's no doubt I'm pregnant.

"And besides, technically, I'm not alone…"

He laughs, leans over, and kisses me.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

"Do you remember what Richard asked, right after the first show at Staples?"

"Uh-huh,'" he replies, instantly.

I turn in a complete circle, taking in the entire theater, and when I stop, I take his hand and look him right in the eyes.

"Being allowed to play here, tops everything _Lemonade Mouth_ has ever done – and maybe, everything we ever will do."

And if _you_ feel that way, try to imagine where the kids are…"

"Yeah," I reply, as he puts an arm around me, and we head for the exit, "that's why Richard agreed we shouldn't tell them it's all being recorded…"

Laughing, we head for our tour bus, up in the parking lot.


	27. Chapter 25

_**TWENTY-FIVE**_

The fans are in their seats, the stage is set, and we – all eleven of us – are standing together at the bottom of the stairs backstage. As I stare at the sheet of paper in my hand, I have an epiphany…

_Stella_ should be doing this… not me. I turn and look right at her, and smile.

"What?" she asks.

Without a word, I hand her the page, and step out of the way, giving her clear path to the stairs.

"Olivia…"

"Hush Stella. You need to do this, and you know it. More importantly, the four of us," I point at the others, all standing next to me, "know it as well."

"She's right," Mo says, smiling, and hugging Stella.

"Ditto," Charlie adds.

"But you wrote all this," Stella says, holding up the page.

"Yes, I did. That's what _I_ do – _I write_," I reply, smiling.

Finally, Wen steps up and takes her hands.

"From the very moment in Dante's all those years ago, when, with a mouth full of pizza, you told us what you'd done, _you_ have been this band's _leader_. So go out there, and lead."

Stella, whose stomach is also showing badly, stands on her tiptoes, and kisses Wen smack on the lips. Then, without another word, she turns, climbs the stairs, and goes center stage. The rest of us follow, stopping behind the speaker stacks, and watching.

Stella takes the microphone Terri holds out, high-fives her, and goes right to the front edge of the stage, where she promptly sits down.

"I hope you guys don't mind, but this whole 'pregnant' thing is wearing me down a bit."

Some muffled laughter and soft applause is heard after her comment.

"First of all, there are some people who need to be recognized – simply for being here."

Stella repositions herself, and again looks at the sheet of paper.

"Will the following folks, please stand up for me – I promise we aren't going throw you out or anything..."

Again, laugher.

"Mr. Colin Hillary, and his wife Marsha, from Auckland, New Zealand, and Dmitry and Natalya Kuznetsov – I hope I pronounced that correctly – of Moscow, Russia."

Once the four of them, who are around ten rows back and almost next to each other, stand up, Stella continues.

"Ladies, gentlemen, these four people along with all the rest of you, are why _Lemonade Mouth_ does what it does. Mr. and Mrs. Hillary have actually traveled _7080 miles_ to get here. Dmitry and Natalya – who are brother and sister – came 5420 miles. To give our younger fans an idea of what that means, it's like driving from New York to San Francisco – _and back_, just to get to the concert. They still have to do it again, to get home."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a group of kids in the front row – who are actually _the entire freshman class_ of Western Plains High School, compliments of _Ransom_ – stand up, turn and look at the people standing, and start applauding. Within seconds, everyone is on their feet, and join in.

"There are others out there that came from long distances as well," Stella continues over the applause, "and don't think we don't know who you are. As long our fans respond like this, we will keep giving you all that we can."

I feel Wen put his arm around me, and I turn to look at the others around me.

"Guys… this is going to be so far off the chart…"

"Next, I need Miranda Hamilton, and those two bookends she has with her."

The crowd laughs, as Miranda and her twins, who are sitting third row, center section, stand up and make their way down front.

"I have to tell you guys," Stella continues, "when I heard about this, I almost freaked. Miranda, may I?" Stella holds out her hand, and Miranda puts something in it, which Stella immediately holds up.

"This," she says, smiling at Miranda, "is a ticket stub, from _Lemonade Mouth's_ very first large venue show – at Madison Square Garden. Fourteen years ago.

She again holds out her hand, this time to one of the twins, who puts a photo in it.

"This, guys, is the proof. Through some sort of bizarre fate and destiny, Miranda and her best friend, were standing on the floor, center stage, when a reporter took this photo for one of the local papers. The moment she saw it, they went and ask for copies."

Stella pauses, asks two of the security guys to help her get down off the stage, and takes a spot between the twins.

"Girls?"

They each hold up two of our CDs.

"Where did these come from?" Stella asks, and then puts the mic in front of the girl on her left.

"Mom gave us the first one," she says, smiling at Stella. "Molly bought the second one. I bought the third one. And we put our money together for the last one."

"So… you guys are fans on your own then?"

"_Oh yes ma'am,"_ the other twin quickly replies, "Ever since we were seven. Mom was always listening to your first CD, so one day we borrowed it, and put the whole thing in our mp3 players. When I saved up and bought the second CD, mom gave me the first one, and said I could keep it."

"Folks – I think this totally supports what I've been telling the media, and fans worldwide, since the five of us got on this 'crazy' bus, fourteen years ago. It's not about us… it is, and always has been, _about music_."

Stella pauses, turns and hugs Miranda first, then each of the twins.

_"Music is universal, spans generations, and is the single thing in the world that binds us as people. Music has always been… and I believe, will be forever..."_

Once again, every single person in the place is on their feet, applauding. The whole scene makes my body erupt with goose bumps, and makes me shudder. Wendell feels it, and gently squeezes my shoulder.

"So, if she," Stella points at the twin on her right, "is Molly, who are you?"

"Sally."

"You two do realize you look _a lot_ alike… right?" Stella says.

When the place erupts in laughter, Sally rolls her eyes, and Molly blushes.

"So… there's a rumor going around that today is your birthday."

The moment she says it, I – and pretty much everyone present – knows what she's going to do.

"Yes ma'am, it is." Sally replies.

"How old are you guys?"

"Twelve," comes from Molly.

"Well… I have job for the two of you, but there's something we need to do first."

She turns, and looks directly at the ten of us, and we of course, take the hint. Single file, and to a round of applause, we walk out to the front of the stage.

"Did you want us for something," Charlie asks, as the rest of us do our best not to laugh.

"It's their birthday," Stella replies, nodding at the twins.

As she's talking, a guy from the concession stand walks up, and hands each of the girls a six inch round cake, with their names on them. The girls immediately trade cakes, which makes the guy blush, and the audience laugh.

Then without any warning, Misty starts singing Happy Birthday – without a mic. Needless to say, before she finishes the first line, everyone in the place is singing along. By the time we finish, once again, everyone is on their feet.

Once were done, Miranda takes the cakes, and goes back to her seat, leaving the twins standing there – at Stella's request. Realizing the show should have started forty-five minutes ago, the ten of us are wondering what the heck the woman is up to. Stella turns and asks for my mic, which I hand to her, then, after turning the one she's holding on, she looks at the twins and asks, "You two aren't afraid of people, are you?'

"No ma'am," they mumble together.

"Good. You're in charge of the mics." She hands them each a powered mic, then turns and ask Mo for hers. Then, in typical Stella fashion, she spins the girls around so they're facing the audience, and asks, "So… who's up for questions and answers?"

The applause starts immediately, at least 200 hands go up, and the ten of us, simply start laughing – again.

"Man, Stella, we are going to be _in sooo_ much trouble," Charlie blurts out, following it with a deep laugh.

When the crowd suddenly goes quiet, Mo adds her opinion.

"Jezzz, Charlie, it's not like we haven't been in trouble before!"

"Just sit down, Delgado," Stella orders, and of course we all comply.

For the next forty-five minutes, the eleven of us answer every question they ask. Molly and Sally probably put twenty-five miles on their sneakers, going up and down, across and back, taking the mics to people. The interesting thing is, at least half the questions are for the members of _Ransom_.

Once it seems they've run out of question, I make a suggestion.

"So guys, we're almost two hours behind. Think maybe we should play some music?"

The crowd applauds, and as we turn to go backstage, Misty stirs things up. It seems, the members of _Ransom_ are about to get in the best jab of the tour. Why they decide to pick on Stella will always be a mystery…

Well… okay… so not all _that_ much of a mystery.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Faintree," she says, trying not to laugh.

Mo looks at me, and then at Charlie, who smiles and says, "Uh-oh…!"

"What can I do for you, Misty?" Stella says, turning back to the audience. "Whenever teenagers call you '_Mrs.'_ they're usually up to something…" she whispers into her mic, generating more laughs.

"I think we need to tell the audience exactly what belongs in those cases you seem so unwilling to talk about…"

I immediately turn and look at Joshua, who is standing within feet of me.

"_Oh come on!"_ he says, as the rest of them laugh. "We've been around you guys for the last eleven weeks. You didn't seriously think you could videotape a performance without us finding out, did you?"

The funny thing is, the audience has gone silent, and is diligently listening to every word. As I turn back to look at Stella, I hear a giggling Ariel behind me.

"Yeah guys… we know about the DVDs," she says.

"How in the…" Wendell starts to say, looking at Mo and Charlie.

"We learned from the best," Vanessa says, also grinning.

The place erupts in applause, and I realize they're right. This is all about the 1500 people in the seats, and even these kids know it. I step aside, and hold out my hand to indicate Joshua has the stage.

"Folks," he says, as he passes me, "tonight's show is being videotaped, in its entirety, in high-definition. It started the moment Stella sat down."

"Once the technicians get it cut together and edited," Rhyan quickly adds.

"Everyone here gets a copy," Vanessa finishes, and is rewarded by another huge round of applause.

"Although they will eventually be for sale," Mo says, as we concede defeat, "the ones you guys get will be signed – _by hand_ – by at least two of us. Fifty of them will be signed by all eleven of us. It will all be totally random, so hopefully you are happy with what you get. Just make sure you send in the postcards."

Again, there is a massive round of applause. Once it dies down, I turn to the audience.

"Give us five minutes, and we'll see if between the eleven of us, we can rock this place!"

I turn and point backstage, waiting until all of them go ahead of me. At the bottom of the stairs, they all turn to face me.

"You didn't seriously think being videotaped would freak us out, did you?" Joshua asks.

Then just as quickly, Ariel adds, "We didn't piss you off, did we?"

Stella laughs, and is followed by Charlie.

"No," Wen says, you didn't. Definitely freaked us out though."

"How?" I ask, looking right at Misty.

"Common sense, mostly. And of course, because we pay attention – something our _'mentors'_ taught us," she replies, a little smirk on her face. "And of course, Richard eventually told us."

I smile, and feel my heart race. Over the last three months, six kids have become six pretty damn cool adults… and we got to watch.

"Guys," Misty says, stepping forward, "this is going to be the highpoint of our careers – and all of us know it. We'll keep playing together, and if we're lucky, we'll have half the career you guys have had. Tonight, we intend to do the best show we ever have… for you guys. We're here because you, and although we'll never be able to repay what you've done, we intend to make damn sure you never forget us…"

After a couple of seconds of intense silence, we hear Rhyan in the back say, "…and when we play _High Speed Rush_, someone had _better_ get a shot of me shredding."

We're all laughing when Terri and Stephen walk up.

"Come on guys," Stephen says, "You're like 75 minutes off. We're going to have to figure out how to fix it."

Terri hands me a mic, and I head back onstage with the others right behind me. As they get their gear ready, I go directly to the front of the stage, which is now fully lit.

"Okay… so… we've screwed around a bit too much, but were going to try to get in as many songs as we can before…"

"Mrs. Gifford," a deep voice, none of us recognizes, blasts out of the speaker stacks, "your reputation precedes you. I expected nothing less than tonight's antics, from the amazing _Lemonade Mouth._ I assure you, the theater is yours, until you, your friends, _and your fans_, are done with it. The show is over when the five of you say it is..."

The loudest round of applause of the night, results from the theater director's announcement. When I turn around, I see a guy in jeans and a polo shirt, with a mic in his hand, standing next to a laughing Richard. As the others tune up and get ready, I walk over to them, and without a word, hug the guy in the jeans.

"What I've seen tonight, Olivia," he says smiling, "is why we are honored to have you at Red Rocks. Have a great show, and give your fans what they came to hear…"

Finally, ninety minutes late, we actually start the show. The sun has dropped behind the mountains, and the colors on the horizon are amazing. And of course, the lighted the theater, too, is a sight to behold.

Having talked to the others, we agreed that this isn't going to be a first act/second act thing. Instead, just as the DVD covers says, it's _us and them_. _Lemonade Mouth_ plays two songs, then we change, and _Ransom_ plays two of theirs.

We go back and forth, for an hour, and while each band is onstage, the other is out loitering in the crowd, talking to people, and generally experiencing our fans. It's totally amazing, and the crowd is pretty astounded as well.

As we are once again taking the stage, for songs seven and eight, we notice a rather intense conversation going, that seems to involve everyone in the first six rows. As I am tapping on the mic to check it, a young girl, who is part of the high school group, steps to the edge of the stage and waves at me.

I go over and kneel down in front of her.

"Yes?"

It suddenly gets so quiet you can hear the wind whistling through the rocks around us.

"We're all sorta wondering…"

Then, I hear all of _Ransom's_ members, break into laughter behind me.

"…if you guys are going to play _Determinate_ before the concert is over."

I crack up… I simply can't help it!

"We have a request guys," I say, as one of the techs helps me back to my feet.

"So we heard," Mo offers, also laughing.

I watch the girl go back to her seat, and then turn my mic back on.

"Well… as I'm sure you guys know, Stella and I have been put on 'dancing restriction' – mostly because our husbands, and our manager, are worry-warts. So…" I turn and glance at the others behind me, who all grin and nod, knowing what I'm going to do, "…in order to perform _Determinate_ properly, we're gonna need some help…"

The place again erupts, and about half the people are instantly on their feet.

"Now, I hope the older fans don't get offended, but I need everyone over the age of fifteen, to sit down."

The response is again, amazing. All the adults quickly sit down, and most of them even applaud what I'm doing. Because only about five percent of the crowd is actually kids, I'm pretty sure my idea is going to work.

"All of you need to come down here – in front of the stage."

It takes about three minutes, but eventually, there are roughly thirty kids spread out in front of me. I look for Molly and Sally, find them standing at one end of the row, holding each other's hands, and point at them.

"The birthday girls need to come on stage," I say.

"Miss White, if it's okay with you," Sally quickly replies, "we'd like someone else to get the chance to do that. We've already had the best birthday there could ever be."

The audience, understanding what these two twelve year olds just did, breaks into applause. I just nod at them.

"Okay so… this is going to be random. Everyone who was born on the tenth of any month, raise your hand."

Three hands go up.

"How about the twenty-first?" Charlie blurts out, and then raises his hand.

Three more hands.

"And the fourth?" Mo asks, raising her hand.

This time, we get two hands in the crowd, and two behind us. When the kids start giggling we turn to find Joshua and Vanessa have their hands raised.

"Well get over here," I say, laughing. I turn back to the kids and say, I need one more," and then point at the girl who originally asked the question, "and it's you. Now, everyone with their hand up… onstage."

Even as security is helping the kids, Wendell starts the intro. He takes his time, and goes through it three times, before Mo gets the kids ready. Once they are, the lights go out, and I slip out into the audience, and as Wen starts the intro again, I start singing – from halfway up the main aisle. Although every performance is important, for some reason, I throw _everything_ I have, into this one.

With a bunch of kids in front of the stage, and ten more on it, all doing 'the slide', and most of the crowd singing along, this is definitely the ultimate performance of _Determinate_ – I honestly believe we will never be able to top it.

Well… not any time soon.

The rest of the show flows, and close to midnight – two hours after it was supposed to end – we're getting ready to play _Journeys End_.

I'm sucking down half a bottle of water, Stella and Mo are wiping their faces, when, completely unannounced, Leonard and Vicki – closely followed by Melissa and Bailey – walk to center stage, stopping between Stella and Mo.

The thing we immediately notice is that each is carry a guitar – Leonard has Stella's Ibanez, and Vicki has Mo's Taylor.

I take the few steps over to them, switch on my mic, and get close enough it will pick up, whatever they say.

"Here," Leonard says, as Bailey moves next to her mother, and he hands Stella the guitar. "I think you need this."

"And you'll need yours as well," Vicki says, handing the Taylor to Mo.

The entire audience is eerily quiet.

"Guys," I offer, "_Journeys End_ isn't acoustic…"

"This isn't an ending, Olivia," Vicki replies. When she smiles at me, I see the mass of tears building in her eyes. "It's just a break. I honestly don't think it should ever end…"

Then Leonard…

_"This,"_ he says, staring right at his wife, _"is what the five of you do. What you are all amazingly good at…"_

Then, _everyone_ hears Bailey's bubbly little voice…

"Mommy…"

"Yes dear?" a now emotional Stella says, squatting down next to her daughter.

I bend over and hold the mic right next to her.

"Will you play _More Than A Band?"_

Yes… I, and probably half the audience, burst into tears. Everyone knows Leonard – and probably Vicki as well – coached her, but it is nonetheless, heart-stopping. Leonard turns, looks right at me, and takes my free hand.

"Every single one of your fans has at some point over the years, seen you guys play _Journeys End_ live – on TV, or video, or at a show. You brought these 1500 people here – _free_ – for a reason, Olivia. You've interacted with them, like no other crowd…"

He lets my hand go, spins around, and faces the rest of the band.

"You need to go right up to the front of this stage," he says, sounding as forceful, and as totally British as I have ever heard him, "and make _this_ the show of your lives, and _of their lives_," he points at the audience. "Share with them, what only one other crowd has ever experienced…"

"Give them," Vicki says, stepping over and kissing Leonard on the cheek, then looking at the five of us, "_all_ of _Lemonade Mouth_…"

As the stunned and silent crowd watches, without a word, Charlie stands up from his drums, pulls his mic out of its stand, and starts toward us. Wen is right behind, also with mic in hand. Mo's unplugs her bass, takes it off, and hands it to Leonard. Stella does the exact same thing. Then the five of us, go and sit down on the edge of the stage.

The encore was meant to be a goodbye of sorts. Leonard and Vicki – _and the 1500 people sitting in front of us_ – have now made it an affirmation, of the intense bond, the five of us will always share…

After the last note fades, the audience stands and _applauds_. No screaming, or whistling, or stomping – only a soft, heart-warming applause. Wen signals the members of _Ransom_ to come and join us, but instead, the six of them grin at him, shake their heads side to side, then walk around the front of the stage and into the crowd, and join in the applause.

With a little help, we manage to get off the stage, and then arm-in-arm, the five of us take a final bow together. Once the stage lights go out, we turn to head backstage.

It's as perfect a 'final show', as any band could possibly hope for…

Then, two minutes later, as the crowd is gathering their stuff and heading for the exits, _everyone_ – probably all the way to the parking lot – hears Stella's voice…

_one… _

_last… _

_time…_

_"And remember…"_ blasts out of the speaker stacks, at what very well may be full volume, "_…every single one of you is on video!"_


	28. Chapter 26

_**TWENTY-SIX**_

Okay… so it's been left to me, to tell you how all this ends… _this time_. My wife would do it, but she's busy at the moment, giving birth to Carson James Gifford. Yep, it's a boy. How cool is that?

And yes, I'm a wimp. I know there is no way I can deal with childbirth, so Mo is in with Olivia.

We survived yet another tour. Once we sent _Ransom_ on about their lives, the five of us pretty much came to a complete halt. It did, however, take us another month to fully escape the tour – and all the interviews and appearances that inevitably followed it.

But, in the six weeks between then and now, some interesting stuff has happened. The biggest thing being, Mo married Scott – out of the blue, and without a word to anyone. Not even her parents. Again I have to ask, how cool is that?

The day after the last interview – four weeks after the tour ends – we ask everyone to come to our house in Albuquerque, so that we can have a requiem of sorts. Together, we put _Lemonade Mouth_ to bed again – for a while. Richard, Terri – whose husband we _finally_ get to meet – and Stephen also come.

Anyhow, it's Vicki who busts Scott and Mo. They're talking to Richard, in the backyard, and Vicki notices the ring on Mo's hand. She gets all excited, turns to Bailey and whispers, "Quick! Go tell everyone that Scott and Mo are married!" And of course, this particular bubbly, giggly, five-year-old, is always willing to run her mouth. Within seconds, everyone is in the backyard, congratulating them.

Later that same afternoon, all the rest of the 'shoes' drop.

Stella and Leonard are moving to England. But wait, it gets weirder – like that's possible?

Mo relinquishes control of the orchestra back to Leonard, because she's moved to Phoenix, to live with her new husband. The orchestra is pretty stunned, but welcomes Leonard with open arms. We find out later what prompted the Faintree's move.

Stella made Leonard a promise the day Melissa was born – at the hospital, when he was holding her for the first time. She told him that if, and when, their second child came, he or she would be born in England. One of their kids will have an American birth certificate, the other a British one. How's that for being a 'worldwide' family?

Oh, and… Discovery Studios. Remember that? Charlie and Vicki are running it. Go figure?

Vicki made it to Features Editor at the Times, and found that her passion for _writing_ wasn't transferrable. Supervising isn't what she wants to do. So now, in addition to handling the admin parts of the studio, she's freelancing – and is actually in high demand. Seems most of the music publications around the world, are always after her, based solely on the totally amazing story she wrote about the end of our tour. After the second show at Staples, she called and told her boss that she _had_ to cover the rest of the tour – _from a personal perspective_ – even if the paper didn't pay her. Once they saw the finished story… well, you get the idea.

Scott and Mo… now that is a totally unique story. Okay… so maybe not totally unique. They pretty much did the same thing Stella and Leonard did – stepped up, took a huge chance, and followed their hearts. I honestly believe they – just like Stella and Lenny – will in fact make it work. The cool thing is, just being around the two of them, makes the rest of us feeling like we're back in high school.

Olivia says she's going to take time to be a mom. But, the rest of us know that the very moment the opportunity presents itself, the woman will be sitting under a tree somewhere, scribbling in a notebook.

Me… well… I'm a _music teacher_. And you know what? I love it so much, I will probably always be.

So there you have it – the latest chapter in the wildly bizarre antics, of the phenomenon the world _still_ calls _Lemonade Mouth_…


	29. Eplilogue

_**EPILOGUE**_

When Scott's phone rings, I turn and watch him answer it.

"Pickett. Oh hey! How's it going Leo?"

The moment he says the name, I realize I forgot to call Stella, and let her know Olivia is in labor.

"_You're what!_" Scott blurts out. "No way… _no freakin' way!_ Yeah… I know exactly where he is…"

With the strangest look I have ever seen on the guy's face, Scott hands me his phone.

"Here, Leonard needs to talk to you. Seems neither your, or Olivia's, phones are working…"

I take the phone and put it to my ear.

"Yeah, Leonard, what's up?"

"I'm about to become a father again. Stella insisted I call and tell Olivia. Unfortunately…"

His voice fades as I realize exactly what's happening. Even as the disbelief sweeps over me, Scott breaks up laughing. How could this even be possible?

"_Stella is in labor?"_ I pretty much force myself to say.

"Yep! Shannon Marie Faintree could arrive at any moment – according to the doctors."

I quickly glance at my watch, and realize that, even with the time difference, _it's entirely possible_.

"It's 5:00 pm there, right?"

"Yes," Leonard quickly replies.

"And Stella is going to deliver at any time?"

"Uh-huh. What's going on, Wendell?"

"Care to guess where _my_ wife is…?"

He catches on in the blink of an eye…

"No way, Wendell… how is this even possible?"

I crack up… I can't help it. In seconds, Scott too, is laughing like a fool.

"I just turned my phone back on, Lenny. The moment your daughter gets here, call me. The moment my son gets here, I'll call you."

"You do realize our lives just became unbelievably complicated, don't you, Wendell?"

"Leonard, that sir, is the understatement of the year. Talk to you soon."

_**The rest of this story will have to wait until next time…** _


End file.
